Filthybird Spreads Its Wings

Thursday, October 21, 2010 (updated , 2010 3:01 am)
By Carole Perkins

GRAHAM — While local music aficionados have dubbed Filthybird as the one Greensboro band to watch, they really aren’t a Greensboro band anymore.

That’s what vocalist Renee Mendoza explains over the strumming of an old Martin acoustic that her husband/guitarist Brian Haran is fixing in their recently acquired guitar repair shop, Fret Sounds, in downtown Graham.

With bass player Mike Duehring and guitarist Sanders Trippe in Greensboro and percussionist Jim Bob Aiken in Raleigh, Mendoza and Haran made a conscious decision to leave the Gate City and spread their wings in Graham.

Filthybird, whose name comes from a Robyn Hitchcock song, “A Happy Bird is a Filthy Bird,” has been a staple of the local music scene for a long time — for better or worse.

“It’s almost like being cursed to be a band out of Greensboro,” Mendoza explains. “There’s tons of talent there, but it’s like not having a rocket or propulsion to zoom out of there.”

Of late, the band is honing its sophomore release, “Songs for Other People,” an eclectic kaleidoscope of Mendoza’s songs, the psychedelic hues of Jefferson Airplane and cosmic vibe of Gram Parsons.

Haran’s resounding guitar seemingly has its own voice, as it intertwines with the warm, buttery timbre of Mendoza’s vocals. From the acoustic lullaby, “Pick Me Up,” to the somber “Feather Down,” each song paints a narrative portrait in which each character is artfully framed.

That’s quite a departure from their first effort, “Southern Skies,” an album Mendoza says was essentially “blatantly charged songs obviously about myself.”

Local singer/songwriter and belle of the Greensboro music scene, Molly McGinn, says Filthybird is the band that everybody’s watching, no matter where they live.

“The punks steal lines and swagger from Duehring’s bass face. Guitar nerds watch Haran’s mad scientist take on tone and solos. And if Aiken didn’t hold the whole sound down percussion-wise, they’d all just levitate. Then Mendoza ... writes these lyrics and melodies that give emo kids something to feel good about.

“Altogether it’s a sound you’ve never heard before and wish to hell you’d created.”

Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com