Being bedridden with the flu didn't stop Paul Siler from speaking about the Birds of Avalon's forthcoming EP, "Outer Upper Inner."
"I can't stand being sick. It's really, really annoying," Siler said. "There's this freaking flu going around. I thought I had beaten it, and then last night, I got it."
As a guitarist for the North Carolina quintet, Siler has a major reason to nurse himself back to health: There's a lot of work to be done before the band heads to South by Southwest this week. After performing there, Birds of Avalon will stop in Norman on March 19 for an all-ages show at the Opolis with Black Mountain and Nordic Nomadic.
INFLUENCES
"Outer Upper Inner" comes on the heels of the group's freshman full-length "Baazar Baazar," which received a strong recommendation on The Flaming Lips' blog. Birds of Avalon also played a short leg of the Lips' tour last fall.
The band's love of Seventies FM rock's big guitars and tight vocal hooks has led to plenty of comparisons to bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. But the members of Birds of Avalon don't want to be defined solely by their influences.
"This guy called one time, he was doing an interview, and said, 'First thing I'm going to say is, I think you guys are a progressive, psychedelic, blues band, which is probably the most unappealing thought for a band I can ever imagine, but somehow you guys pull it off and it sounds great.' And I know immediately what he's talking about," Siler said. "Deborah Benjamin
