The Trashbirds

The Trashbirds were an Oberlin-based rock and pop band with members from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio that existed from late 2004 until the early 2007.

The band was founded in December 2004 as a Winter Term project at Oberlin College by lead vocalist Matthew Santro '07. He chose members from among his friends, all of whom knew each other from sitting under the Wisdom Tree on Oberlin's North Quad. They were Jay Barone '08 on bass, Will Butler '08 on rhythm guitar, Wes Cowie '06 on drums, and Kerry Kallberg on lead guitar.

Samples of their music can be heard at their MySpace page.

[edit] Band history

Under the working name Fuck the Corpse, the band began to write their first songs in January 2005. They practiced daily in Wilder Hall, the Oberlin Student Union. These sessions, fueled by copious amounts of Pabst Blue Ribbon, marijuana, and cheap vodka, resulted in the writing of six original songs, among which were fan favorites "Little Narcissa," "Molly," and "Get Tethered." They laid down their first recording, The Boobfuck EP, using a 16-bit digital voice recorder placed outside the practice room door.

Before Winter Term ended, the band settled on the name The Trashbirds. They debuted to a private party of about forty people at Cowie's apartment above the hardware store in Oberlin, OH. The band played several shows on campus as well as house parties in Oberlin in the spring of 2005.

The first chapter ended with a performance at "Reality," a large annual party in Annapolis, Maryland, hosted by St. John's College at the end of each school year. The Trashbirds traveled out to the show by car, and it would prove to be the longest distance the band would ever travel to play a gig.

During fall of 2005 the band recorded "We Don't Shout...", a five song EP, with sound technician Leif Shackelford '06. January 2006 saw the Trashbirds playing venues in the Cleveland area including the Beachland Ballroom, Peabody's, and the Grog Shop. They would contine to play house parties and the occasional professional show throughout the remainder of the '05-'06 school year.

The Trashbirds met briefly in July 2006 to record a new album. The session ended in disaster, however, when recording mistakes resulted in all but four of the tracks being completely unusable. Those four tracks would never be released. Additional complications arose when Barone went missing from a number of key rehearsals. After he was discovered in a gutter next to an empty bottle of tequila, Barone and the band officially parted ways. Some strange reports claim that just days before, he had be carried off in the talons of a drunk-looking, red bird smoking a cigarette. His mysterious reappearance remains unexplained to this day.

Early fall '06 saw the remaining four Trashbirds assemble to record their first and ultimately only LP, Bender. Shortly after, Kallberg left the band in order to focus more attention on his academic pursuits.

Bassist Danielle Kolker '09 joined the group to replace Barone in the Fall of 2006, at which point the Trashbirds began to operate as a four-piece set. They played a number of house parties and professional gigs throughout the semester, including a return to the Grog Shop.

The band ultimately dissolved when drummer and songwriter Cowie moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue an employment opportunity. The Trashbirds do not remember which show was their final performance. This is probably because they were so fucked up on drugs and alcohol.

[edit] See also

• List of Trashbirds songs