The Dodos
At the Primavera Sound Festival 2008 Amy Carlson tipped me
about the Dodos to check out and approach for a guitar project. And so I did
and met them in August 2008 at Festival De Beschaving in Utrecht, Holland.
I had made a 72 string version in 2004, which was as can be
expected very unhandy with tuning. For a long time I was thinking about a
smaller more convenient version of that instrument and when I knew roughly how
I was looking for a band suitable for such an instrument for about one year
until the Dodos came and I immediatelly was convinced they would be the best
choice, since the drummer plays highly percussive and they have a vibraphone on
stage. The vibraphone player could play the drum guitar in a somewhat same band
set up.
It took me one year to figure out and built the instrument,
which was quiet a challenge to manage. Meanwhile Liam Finn contacted me and I informed him
about the Dodos project and he got enthousiastic too, so I allready had a 2nd
order before it was even finished. Liam was touring earlier in Europe, so I
finished his drum guitar a bit earlier than the Dodos instrument. The Tafelberg Drum Guitar of the Dodos is the
official Ôblue prototypeÕ of type I. Liams is somewhat different in bridge
construction and he preferred a blonde version for his Tafelberg II.
I met Meric, Joe and Logan at Festival de-Affaire (a
recommendation to visit if you can). When I arrived Blood Red Shoes was on stage and I showed
them the Dodos instruments (I had also made a altered Springtime Guitar for Meric.) and while
playing some movie sound track sound on the Tafelberg Meric walked in because
he heard the weird sounds and expected it was my instrument. It was out of
tune, but they were very convinced about it. The Dodos gig was quiet stressy,
because the mixer went down and they did a gig by amplifying the audience with
their own stage mix and monitor system. Because of the lack of amplification is
was a wild act, probably even more convincing than the other two shows I had
seen, because they had to do their upper best with this broken set up. It
rained heavily and then the sun came trough and their booker Bob was yelling
enthousiastically at me Dodos donÕt need a light show, because they have a
rainbow during their performances.
Last.fm bio
The Dodos formed in the early part of 2006 in San Francisco;
shortly afterward, band member Meric Long released an EP entitled "Dodo
Bird." In support of this EP Long and Logan Kroeber toured intermittently
from July through September 2006, after which they released their first album,
entitled "Beware of the Maniacs." In 2007, the band signed to the
French kiss record label. In 2008, the band released a second album entitled
"Visiter" and began a 17-venue springtime national tour.
"Visiter" was named 3rd best album of 2008 by Under The Radar
Magazine behind only Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend. The Dodos were also named
2nd best new(ish) act of 2008 by a Pitchfork Media readers poll behind only
Fleet Foxes.
Discography
Dodo (EP,
Meric solo)
Beware of the Maniacs, 2006
Visiter,
French Kiss Records, 2008
Time to Die, 2009
External links
http://www.myspace.com/thedodos
www.dodosmusic.net
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