Wow. I just saw the following video over at KEXP.org, of a band new to me, The Barr Brothers, and it just totally captivated me.

The song, Cloud, musically, is aptly named, for like a cloud of smoke it seems delicate enough that if you blew on it it would disperse and fade away. I love the instrumentation – piano, harp, oh so tasty and twangy Guild Starfire guitar, drums — though I have no idea what the drummer is doing at the beginning, playing what looks like a small xylophone with a violin bow.

Now, having checked out their full performance at SXSW, I see that the xylophone and the bow are just the tip of the iceberg of instrument unusualness. From instruments that I can’t identify, to bicycle wheels, to fishing line pulled across guitar strings, The Barr Brothers are doing some incredibly quirky, yet undeniably effective things.

I look forward to spending more time with their music, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Here’s Cloud:

And, since bicycles figure prominently here at Fish & Bicycles: