Birdhand On Cusp of Taking Flight
The South Bay’s Mason Rothschild plays bass for Birdhand, performing tonight at the Viper Room.
There’s a little band out of Santa Cruz that you’ve never heard of. Their name is about a time, a place, an event, a guy, anguish, hardship, hope, a palm tattoo, a hand signal, a family, and not beating around the bush. For some reason they’re called Birdhand. They play rock and roll. You might be wondering why any of this matters. Or why we should bother about these out-of-towners. Well, because this bird’s about to take flight and one of their boys is from our own flock.
Mason Rothschild, South Bay native and class of ’03 RUHS graduate, secured himself a degree in Recording Technologies from California State University Monterey Bay, and has since been working at Indigital Studios in Santa Cruz as a professional music producer and sound engineer. The production maestro has also always maintained a prolific hand in making his own music. Over the years Rothschild has performed as bass guitarist/multi-instrumentalist for The Reptilianaires, The Family Bloom, and Slices Of Home. His musical sprawl has also transpired sporadic collaborations with members of South Bay-based bands Sourgrass and Vaudeville. His latest juncture found him in a band called Brown Irish, which formally changed its name to Birdhand, which recently has gained some rather impressive attention.
“First of all, Birdhand is the future of rock and roll,” said Darryl Jenifer of the legendary Bad Brains. “The first band in years that I “heard” first, before I saw them, like the radio days of old… These cats are the truth, the dopest band I have worked with ever.”
Birdhand caught the attention of Bad Brains and ended up opening for them at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz to rave review. Taking a keen interest in the band, Jenifer produced Birdhand’s brand new debut eponymous EP – which can be heard on DirtyHippieRadio.com.
Jenifer says, “If you don’t believe me, listen to their honest, ripping rock and roll sound… Shit reminds me of back in the day when cats used to have to play the guitar, rock the bass, beat the hell out of the drums, and sing like a stadium rocking ma’fucka… Birdhand is the future, the truth, the new shit…”
Although Jenifer’s words may be inspiring enough, Rothschild describes their rock and roll sound “as though we’re riding a giant space Pegasus that shoots rainbow laser beams out of its eyes and blows up planets.”
At any rate, they claim to draw influence and inspiration from “Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Bad Brains, Queens of the Stone Age, Baths, Fugazi, Explosions in the Sky, Disneyland, PB&J, and all our Santa Cruz people who we haven’t slept with – and a few that we have.”
Birdhand is Mason Rothschild (bass, co-frontman), Joey Weed (vocals, guitars, co-front man), Chris Holcomb (lead guitar, co-frontman), and Nick Overhauser (drums, back up vocals, co-frontman).
It appears that each member plays no less an integral role in the band than any other, and it comes across as such on their record. Each real sounding rock and roll note, riff, lick, and beat seems to be given as much attention and care as the next – and as far as blowing up planets with rainbow laser beams, well… it does sound like these boys could blow the roof off a joint live.
Speaking of which, it so happens that the enamored Bad Brains tweeted in the ear of none other than Warner Brothers Records, who in turn raised a wise, bushy eyebrow at Birdhand and booked them for a live showcase in Hollywood – where they will be performing tonight at The Viper Room at 8 p.m.!
“I think they like us,” says Rothschild about Warner. “They got our number at a party and now they wanna take us out on a date… The Bad Brains camp put us in touch with them and the whole thing seems surreal… It is the greatest honor to be working with Darryl Jenifer and Bad Brains manager Tony Countey – they are legends, and it makes us so proud to know that they love our music and want to help us out; we can’t believe that they are our friends, mentors and managers.”
Rothschild continues, “Nothing has happened with Warner Brothers other than they wanna see us play live, but we are excited!”
Modest and humble he may be, the reality for Rothschild and Birdhand is that one of the all-time biggest record labels in the world is flying out to see them play! No pressure, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime for one of South Bay’s own – better than winning the lottery, a chance to become a professional musician!
“We don’t like the term professional musician,” says Rothschild. “It seems like an oxymoron – we prefer full-time musician.”
Birdhand performs live at The Viper Room, tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. To inquire about their unlimited guest list, contact the band on Facebook, or for more info call The Viper Room at (310) 358-1880. ER