THE RARE BIRDS

Following behind them were Rare Birds, a band that recently moved to Austin from Cincinnati. This was the real surprise of the day. The 3-piece act, sans bass, managed to wrestle some amazing riffs into the tightly wound machine that is their band. With a sound that draws on Zep, Queens of the Stone Age, and maybe a little Black Keys, this is definitely an act to watch. - Austin fusion magazine

Weird Birds
A spinoff of Kent's Dr. Teeeth blazes a strange new trail
By Jeff Niesel

About a year ago, Rusty Boyer and David Horton of the Kent rock band Dr. Teeeth wanted to explore something more "futuristic and complex," as Boyer puts it. So they recruited a friend — singer and guitarist Neal Campbell — for a new project called the Rare Birds. Before long, they had written several songs and set their minds to making an album.

"The Rare Birds have more of an experimental element that the Dr. Teeeth doesn't venture into," says Boyer, Teeeth's singer and guitarist. "It's a different sort of weirdness."

No kidding. Just listen to the songs available on therarebirdsofcleveland.com. "Possible Conversations" recalls Queens of the Stone Age, while "Black Summer" and "Whistling Bones" are sludgier and more groove-oriented. The band used its West Side practice space (conveniently located behind Cleveland Lumber) as a recording studio and self-produced its upcoming album. "It's not that heavy," says Boyer. "We love riffs and everything. The Dr. Teeeth would have made these songs really heavy. It's more of a spacey and atmospheric and melancholy feeling than a stoner-rock kind of approach." - Scene Magazine