Night Birds - Midnight Movies (No Way)
Night Birds' new EP is less raw than their demo, less surf-y than their first EP, and probably the best recording they’ve released so far. This EP is chock full of surf-rock inspired guitar riffs underneath punchy, snotty vocals in the vein of 80s California punk. Its lyrical content pays a lot of tribute to the 80s B-Horror circuit, which the band describes as being “the punk rock of films.” Night Birds are certainly not the first band in punk rock to display affection for B-Movie culture, with particular respect to the horror side of things. With many of those bands, however, I feel like the band relies too much on their gimmick to be taken seriously. This is not the case with Night Birds. The movies, the gore--the shtick, if you will--are secondary to the music, which is fast, catchy, and draws from varied enough influences to keep it interesting at all times. It’s the lovechild of a wild one-night stand between Jello Biafra and Dick Dale, with Lloyd Kaufman sneaking his way into the bed in the middle of the night. Freaky stuff. This is great work from a very promising band.
You can catch Night Birds live at Gallery 5 on Tuesday, October 26th at Shitty Halloween with No Friends, Dead to Me, Southside Stranglers, and Grown Ass Men.