Artist Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk

Any band with a name as weird as Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk should be required by law to tweak its sound at least as much as this Lawrence, Kan., outfit does. There are stranger acts out there still, but BBDDM offers a wash of cluttered, echoing soundscapes, syncopated fits of straight-ahead indie-rockin’, and often both in the same track. Songs from the group’s 2008 album Eek Shriek Beak sound intriguingly distant, as if some instruments were recorded through paper cups on a string. In a live setting, the swirls of lo-fi noise can translate into something much more sweaty and up-front.

Updated 11/19/2009