tUnE-yArDs

by Heather Phares
tUnE-yArDs is the lo-fi experimental folk project of Merrill Garbus, also of the noisy, indie pop band Sister Suvi. A truly solo project, Garbus began writing and performing under the tUnE-yArDs moniker in 2006. She assembled songs with a digital voice recorder and shareware mixing software, making a homespun patchwork of found sounds, field recordings, ukulele, unusual percussion, and her surprisingly soulful vocals. It took Garbus two years to piece her debut album Bird-Brains together, then she offered it as a pay-what-you-want download on the tUnE-yArDs website. Thanks to frequent touring with artists like Thao, and positive buzz from music blogs, Garbus sold over $1,000.00 worth of copies of the album. In spring 2009, Marriage Records released the album on vinyl; that summer 4AD reissued it in a special, screen-printed version limited to 1,000 copies before releasing a widely distributed CD version of Bird-Brains that fall, coinciding with a tour opening for the Dirty Projectors.