Event

BOWERBIRDS /SHARON VAN ETTEN

Bowerbirds' accordionist Beth Tacular paints-- sometimes on paper, sometimes on craggy bits of salvaged wood-- strange, whimsical landscapes, littered with critters and berries and plants and airplanes and skyscrapers and unicorns and feathers. Tacular's visual art (already beloved by plenty) is packed with big, gnawing oppositions-- industry vs. ecology, urban vs. rural, fantasy vs. truth, man vs. earth-- and Bowerbirds' tingly indie-folk is no less dynamic or indicting.

Tacular, along with partner/guitarist Phil Moore and multi-instrumentalist and producer Mark Paulson, churns out deceptively pleasing folksongs about plants and animals and the unforgivable things we do to them. Even in a post-Al Gore America (where Wal-Mart's gone green-- sorta-- and hybrid cars are as much of an it-accessory as Goyard totes), it's still awfully hard for a sweet-faced North Carolina couple to clutch their instruments to their chests and coo bits like, "It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth" without making everyone squirmy. But Bowerbirds' pro-Earth proselytizing is more endearing (and inspiring) than precious or cloying, and if anything, all that earnestness will just make you adore them more - Amanda Petrusich, PITCHFORK.COM