You’d be hard pressed to find a band that has more fun than The Bivburgs.
Evan Winter, Aaron Ruettinger, Corey Ferreira and Joseph Orson are four best buds who not only get to hang out all the time but do it while composing some of the most edgy new tunes to hit the Ypsilanti music market.
Composed of Winter on the trumpet, Ruettinger on the guitar, Ferreira on keyboard and Orson on the drums, The Bivburgs are not your standard garage band.
On any given night, you can hear music reminiscent of Soulwax, Cake, The Stooges and Funkadelic (all at once) flooding out of Ypsilanti’s Spur Studios. There, the band has created an ideal practice place that’s reflective of its quirky and fun mentality.
When referring to their musical outlook Ferreira says, “We don’t scrutinize, because then the music falls apart.”
And it’s clear, The Bivburgs are on to something, because even when messing around the band has a way of communicating that enables them to construct songs while on jamming tangents.
All of the band’s music has been written collectively in a uniquely “Bivburg” way. Many of its songs started with a couple of the guys playing around, coming up with some good noise and later the others would build off that.
The Bivburgs have created such an eclectic sound that listening to their music is purely spellbinding. Just when you might think you can define the band as post-rock, Winters’ trumpet will sound or Ruettinger will launch into an incendiary guitar solo, leaving you wondering where the song will go next.
Because of the trumpet, songs like “Black Cred” have a more jazzy side, while jams like “Creeper” pull from the depths of Sonic Youth’s trademark sounds.
Ruettinger is especially entertaining to watch because he uses lesser-known techniques like finger tapping and utilizes screwdrivers, beer cans or whatever is lying around the studio when playing the guitar.
Finger tapping, Ruettinger explains, is a method that’s sometimes used in math-rock, one of his favorite genres and yet another genus The Bivburgs draw from.
In essence, when it comes to The Bivburgs you never know what you’re going to get. Because, like Orson mentioned, “We can’t take ourselves too seriously.”
If you ever get the opportunity to watch The Bivburgs jam, don’t miss their pre-practice ritual that
they call “backpack.”
While getting fired-up, the boys literally bounce around the studio, giving each other high-fives, slapping each other’s backs and chanting “backpack.”
Ferreira jokes, it’s “because, who doesn’t get that excited about backpacks?”
The Bivburgs will be playing on Feb. 26 at the Screaming Eagle, on Cross Street, with other local bands. The show starts at 7 p.m. but The Bivburgs will be hitting the stage at 1 a.m. to close the show.
