Andrew Bird’s “Tin Foiled”

NEW ANDREW BIRD TRACK “TIN FOILED” PREMIERES ON PITCHFORK

COLLECTION OF THE HANDSOME FAMILY COVERS THINGS ARE REALLY GREAT HERE, SORT OF…

OUT JUNE 3 DIGITALLY

ON TOUR THIS SUMMER WITH BAND HANDS OF GLORY,

TO APPEAR AT BONNAROO AND SUMMERSTAGE

Photograph by Shervin Lainez

“Bird is a force”—The Huffington Post

“Andrew Bird is a musician’s musician. The classically trained multi-instrumentalist writes delightful pop songs disguised as beautiful violin and whistle-laden ballads.”—Time

Pitchfork is premiering “Tin Foiled,” the first track from Andrew Bird’s forthcoming collection of Handsome Family covers, Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of…, out June 3 digitally. Stream “Tin Foiled” via Soundcloud here and watch a trailer for the tour and album here.

Bird will embark on a North American tour this summer with his band Hands of Glory (Tift Merritt, Alan Hampton (bass),Eric Heywood (pedal steel) Kevin O’Donnell (drums)) including dates at Summerstage, Telluride and Bonnaroo. The tour begins June 6th with a special live appearance on Studio 360 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and two intimate shows at Rough Trade NYC on June 7. Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of… is available for pre-order here.

The Handsome Family (husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks) have collaborated as a couple for more than 20 years. The band has garnered widespread critical acclaim, SPIN says “The songs are an effortless blend of vintage country and pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop, but New Mexico’s Handsome Family are no cutesy nostalgia act.” Bird, who has long be a fan and first covered their track “Don’t Be Scared” in 2003, toured with the band last fall.

Things are Really Great Here, Sort Of… includes an updated rendition of “Don’t Be Scared,” along with “Far From Any Road,” the main title theme song for the HBO series True Detective. Watch The Handsome Family perform their track “So Much Wine” with Bird in Santa Barbara last fall here.

The new album follows Bird’s 2013 release of the seven track EP I Want to See Pulaski at Night, and his 2012 releaseHands of Glory, which was dubbed to be “A quiet, careful grower…it blooms into something beautiful.” by NPR, while gaining praise from Rolling Stone, calling Bird a man whose “emotional urgency energizes his fluid multi-instrumental elocution.”

Chicago-based film score composer, multi-instrumentalist and lyricist, Andrew Bird, picked up his first violin at the age of four and spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz, country blues and gypsy music, synthesizing them into his unique brand of pop. Since beginning his recording career in 1997, he has released 11 albums, his first solo record Weather Systems coming in 2003. Bird has gone on to record with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Most recently Bird composed his first ever film score for the movie Norman (hailed as “a probing, thoughtful score” by The New York Times; available now on Mom + Pop), contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppets and collaborated with inventor Ian Schneller on Sonic Arboretum, an installation at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.