Obscure Birds, may be a bunch of old men who don't know when to stop, they may be a collection of Luddites who don't know any better, they may be everymen attempting to come to terms with everyday life, there is also a possibility that they are a cadre of heads of multi-national corporations slumming it by playing in seedy clubs dressed in outfits procured by assistants from various thrift stores to lend an air of authenticity. Whoever they are they bring over 200 years of music-listening experience and funnel it from their ears through the mind filter and dispense it through their fingers and toes, to create a unique blend of Post retro psych alt-country folk sub-prog classic rock, that will tickle your emotions, stimulate your auditory impulses, and generate images on your brain screen.
What Happened?
The short version
3 musicians from the Milwaukee area got together in 2016 formed a band and recorded some material that was never officially released, a 4th member joined. Some things happened, An EP was Digitally released, and a full-length CD "Hatch" was physically released. They are still a band today.
(long version below)
Our Stylists
Dave Voss
Boom, snap and crash
Jay Pinkowski
Wub Wub & Ahhhh
PAUL Rickert
Ahhhh, strum & plink
Rob Pfeifer
Hum, twinkle & ahhhh
What Happened?
The long version
In late 2015 or early 2016, Paul and Jay were engaging in typical pub talk, the meaning of life, reliving old times, the best seasoning for bobotie, the proper sizing of animal haberdashery, where I left my keys, etc. Eventually, the conversation turned to music, as it will. The concept of Saturday for sinners and Sunday for saints was discussed, and Paul mentioned having a stockpile of songs written.
Rehearsals were organized in Jay's living room, and after a couple of 2, 3 get-togethers, they had about 45-60 minutes of material (a mix of covers and originals). At this point, adding a drummer seemed the obvious next step. Jay said, "I don't think Dave is doing too much right now. I'll see if he is interested". Dave was interested and joined shortly after.
Several more rehearsals were scheduled, and the three got together in Dave's basement. Things gelled, and on Friday, October 7th, 2016, Obscure Birds made their debut at Milwaukee's illustrious Circle A Cafe (RIP). Shows were played, and studio time was booked at Hamtone Studios, where a four-song demo was recorded with the addition of one of Paul's former bandmates, John Groff, on keyboards. These tracks were not immediately released.
In March 2017, Paul had a discussion with Rob at Club Garibaldi during that year's iteration of the long-running Milwaukee tradition, Spoof Fest (Rob was playing with Whitesnake, Jay and Dave were backing Madonna). Curiosity piqued, Rob joined the band shortly thereafter (sometime in April 2017). The band went into the basement of the Zippel Candy store and started to rehearse as a four-piece. The addition of keys rounded out the sound nicely. During this time, the band also incorporated vocal harmonies into the sound. Eventually, the band recorded harmony vocals, with Rob for the four-song demo; these were sent to Jeff @ Hamtone and added to the mix, it was still not released
After about a year of performing, it was decided that the band would focus on original music (Sporadic one-off covers have been performed to mark special occasions in music history). The band has been performing intermittent shows, consistently adding new songs as they come.
In October of 2022, Obscure Birds began recording a 9-song full-length tentatively called "HATCH" (also known as "we don't really know what we are doing, so this may take a while").
In March of 2023 The recordings done at Hamtone studios were released on Bandcamp as the Egg Sessions
HATCH was completed and self-released on June 7, 2025, Available on Bandcamp and at shows
And that is where we are today.