A very big hey to y’all,

My how a couple of months can fly by when you get up to good and perhaps the not so good! We played the travelling juggernaut that was the Groovin’ The Moo festivals, battled and lost to sand flies in Broome, challenged political comments on condoms in Darwin, embraced the beauty of the Tivoli, were joined by the masses in water taxis and ferries to Cockatoo Island and celebrated with our fine friends in New Zealand!

Birthday shenanigans were had courtesy of Adam Spark, but there’s no need to chat about turning 25 in the band news column. Mass kudos to you all for sharing these great times with us.
We hope you all had as much fun as we did.
Also, for those of you who missed out on our Debit MasterCard Priceless Music show on Cockatoo Island in Sydney recently, good news… 7 Mate are airing it TONIGHT at 10.30pm with MTV airing it on Sunday 19th June from 8.30pm.

So while we continue to put our heads down and tails up in studio land, as lets face it, we all have to wait for a new season of Sons of Anarchy, you can vote for Birds in Triple J’s Hottest 100 Australian Albums of all time HERE.
Now don’t cheat yourself and vote for records you think others will be proud of, vote for the albums that truly mean something to you!

That’s all for now, be sure to keep an eye out for some tasty news very soon until then…stay cheeky.

BoT X

 
WHAT HAPPENS IN BENDIGO, STAYS IN BENDIGO!

The travelling circus that is the Big Day Out is over for another year and what fun we had! So, with tired bones and heat exhausted bodies we’d like to give a BIG shout out to all of those who swarmed the main stage to make it one hell of a festival run for us to remember. We’ve included some happy snaps taken by our good friend Kane Hibberd who joined us on the Big Day Out for your viewing pleasure. Check out our February newsletter (see link below) to check ‘em out.  Enjoy!

A special mention must also go out to our new friends in New Zealand, we’ll be seeing you again sooner rather than later!

Speaking of overwhelming support, here in camp Birds we’re chuffed to have achieved THREE entries in triple j’s annual Hottest 100 poll, including ‘Plans’ that came in at #4, well done gang! And congrats to our friends in Angus and Julia Stone, Little Red, Art vs Science for their super results, you’re doing us all proud! Somewhere during the crazy summer period, we also managed to score a gong for Rolling Stone’s ‘Readers Choice’ Award so thanks to all you RS readers!

The past is exactly that, so read on for all our exciting upcoming adventures (there’s quite a few). As our dear friend Chàvez would say ‘Juice’.

Full February newsletter READ HERE

BoT X

My how quickly this year has gone, sure we say that every year but 2010 truly has been packed with one adventure after another!

We really can’t be happier that this year’s record has struck a chord with so many of you, so we’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks again as you have all been there each step of the way to keep our sanity in check. There were travels galore with shows abroad and full scale tours at home and 2011 shows so signs of slowing down.

While we’re not usually the most reflective or content bunch, we do realise that through hard work and genuine opportunity we have been fortunate enough to thoroughly enjoy this chapter of our lives, so on that note before we all choose to have our 12th beverage and 15th party pie, always spare a thought and a donation for those in need. Who knows you may end up feeling all warm and fuzzy or that could still be all the food and drink you’ve consumed in one sitting!

So while the Birds of Tokyo journey continues we ask that you stay safe on the roads during the silly season as we’d like to see you again in full voice starting next year at Southbound and Big Day Out!

Much love

BoT X

So, it has been a cool couple of months in the Birds glass of gin. Lots of people showing support and saying nice things about us, which is always a nice feeling to say the least. You wonderful peepholes have shown much love by looking after us, and we are really lucky to have such great fans out there. Our record has now gone platinum and little ole’ Plans has pipped over 100,000 beans! Like edamame beans – an amazing starter! And speaking of cucumber in gin, we ended up walking away with our first ever ARIA Award for ‘Best Rock Album’ for 2010. It was pretty cool and again thanks to everyone for showing the love. It was definitely a very weird and unpredictable weekend to say the least!

In other news, the J award is also around the corner and while we have no expectation of winning things – ever – we are really happy to be in some fine company this year. And wish all of our other friends and artists a big congrats on creating some really beautiful work this year. It’s lovely to be thought of in the same company.

It’s a really cool time for the band except for the fact that summer is around the corner. In which case, we’ll all be very hot soon and looking forward to a summer full of festival gins and assorted citrus elements. We can’t wait to hit the Big Day Out festival lap, and we’re very pleased to announced two very special side-shows happening in January in Newcastle and Wollongong. Hoping all you folk can make it down to these very special shows!

Until then…

Grapefruit rules….and so does eggs benedict…
Oh and read playing beatie bow sometime…killer classic little book!

Love,
Captain Adam Grapefruit and the Citrus bracelets.

Hey there fine folk,

You gotta love it when the realisation sets in that summer is on it’s way. The warm weather that inspires going for a surf, having a BBQ or simply an excuse to get the lemonades flowing with friends! Here in camp birds we are privileged to be living in these feel-good times as the news of the week is that we have just been announced to perform at the 2010 ARIA Awards on Sunday November 7 at the Opera House. So get the make-up girls ready again, as our mugs are back on TV!! While Birds are up for six nods of approval, the most important gong is where YOU get to make all the difference as we have been nominated as the Most Popular Australian Artist in the first ever publicly voted category at the ARIA awards. So this is the one that counts and it’s up to you guys and gals to head to the site and simply click away HERE!

In other news, word on the street is that ‘Plans’ has been certified platinum (that’s over 70,000 singles!) and is officially the Highest Selling Australian Single Of The Year, so we’re officially handing over all bragging rights to you, the people who made it so…top effort. Speaking of singles, we recently shot a video for Wild At Heart in an enchanted forest which amazingly was tucked away in Dural, Sydney. While we’ve been lapping up the aforementioned warmth, this shoot swung temperatures in the much chillier direction…but I’m not giving anything away except for a teaser shot below as you should all get to cast your eyes upon the clip very soon. In the meantime, keep an ear out as our new single hits the airwaves in the coming week. We know we’ve made the right choice as every one of you out there with a set of pipes drowned out our in ear monitors on the recent tour…good work!

That’s all for now, we’ll say hi again from the Opera House!

A.W

Wow, like all good blood tests, that didn’t feel like long at all!

However, blood tests make you feel terrible…what, with the needle poking and all the blood….but you know you’re doing a good thing in your soul….this tour was more like the second part of that haemo-analogy only…was good for our souls and hopefully yours too!

We are so happy that you allowed us to indulge in such a grand scale of rockin and rollin’ and we really enjoyed your company very much. We also we really enjoyed the company of Silversun Pickups (quite possibly the sweetest band of souls we have met), and our younger musical friends in The Chemist! (oh and Emperors In Perth). We really hope that from start to end of each night, that peeps had a great time / show. We sure did! I drank lots of gin and dirty martinis…which is a sign of good times as i dont normally drink much at all. I can’t speak for the others however! Ha!

Huge thanks for everyone in the massive touring party too…a particular nod to the Hugo Chavez Regime also…we love you!

We now have much more to prepare for, but just wanted to say thanks for sharing (yet again) with us. I don’t think we will ever get tired of thanking people for support. You afford us the most creative headspace and parallel movements in the world. You fucking fascinating and handsome people…boys and girls….girls can be handsome too.

Adam s. + flock of peanuts.

You know the ones? The kind where you lay on them all day in the pool and get all sunburnt. Well, that sucks, but it’s relaxing….and we are really relaxed…times are good!

We are finding really cool and interesting ways to present some of our material for upcoming shows / festivals and the like. The reason you ask? Because it’s interesting for us…and hopefully for you guys too!

The general feeling in the Birds of Tokyo camp at the moment is one of positivity and a genuine excitement about forward movements. Despite the fact that as a band, we all kind of live and spend a lot of time in different places these days, we really have found our groove both as a music “pop group” and as people/friends/family/brothers/sisters…you name it. Coffee has never been…beanier? Banana bread has never been more..well, toasted.

Two weeks out from touring now…thanks for listening to the various noises we make and if anyone has one of those blow up crocodiles for real, I want it! I have no pool, but I’m sure they would make a suitable bed, should the need ever arise on the road.

Luv
Adam S + BoT

If you don’t happen to have a copy yet, all you need is an internet connection and access to a highly illegal downlo, NO NO! – get down to your favourite record store or if mp3s are you’re thing head over to iTunes! Otherwise we may be forced to play one last show on Jacko’s rooftop or something. Did I mention highly illegal…

Well we’ve been busy bodies in camp Birds, particularly in the past few weeks doing press surrounding the albums release. Sparki and I caught up with plenty of our media pals to either be filmed, recorded, pre-recorded, studio bound or poked and prodded with the common goal of talking crap. Put the two of us in a room with Chit Chat and you would swear there’s never been so much ginger go live to air before!

Right now there’s a few emails going back and forth between the band as to what we should include in the setlist for our upcoming tour in Sep/Oct. We all agree that these shows at these amazing venues are going to be our most extensive to date and this set is going to be a journey from start to finish.

So what tunes are going to make the trip around the country and what unlucky compositions will be left behind? Perhaps we can see some demands or crazy reasoning on the facebook page…really we don’t mind a good argument. Although they’re usually settled by whoever is the loudest…so beware coz Sparki usually wins!

Take care and we’ll see y’all soon.

We played a had full of tracks some off the new record and some not with just one or two passes at each then listened back and chose the ones we feel were the best.

Things sounded really good in the studio today.. it was all very relaxed and free forming.. good buzz. It may have something to do with the fact that everyone had a slight bender last night not that i’m endorsing such behavior but what ever works right?

There’s a lot to be said about self medicating..