A Box of Birds is the twelfth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in September 1999.[1] It consists of cover versions of tracks by artists who were influential on the group's music.
The album was released after the band's decision to abandon an already-complete live album[2] and was recorded and mixed in 10 days.[3] Guitarist Marty Willson-Piper said the band had played several covers in its gigs over the years, including "The Porpoise Song", "It's All Too Much" and "Cortez the Killer" – "and we thought, why not put them on a record. So we came along with our own ideas. Tim wanted to do an Iggy Pop number, Peter wanted "Cortez", Steve wanted Kevin Ayers and I wanted to do Alex Harvey. We had to pick 10 after an initial list of about 40."[4]