Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

What’s that over there on the horizon? Well, it’s Night Birds riding a bigass wave right onto the beach with ‘Pull The String’. The surf-y instrumental is the opening track of the band’s new mini album ‘Roll Credits’ and comes with seven more tunes in its wake. Seven glorious tunes.

‘Roll Credits’ marks the return of Mike Hunchback, the band’s original guitarist, who not only played on the new songs but also produced the whole thing. This is the first time in Night Birds’ existence that they have played as a five-piece and well, it gives everything even more of a kick in the ass.

Other than that it’s business as usual. And business is good. Hardcore punk tunes that have as much in common with Dead Kennedys as with Agent Orange and OFF!, buzzsaw guitars, feelgood songs about serial killers and an absolute shitload of hooks and badass jagged riffs.

‘Onward To Obscurity’ and ‘White Noise Machine’ are absolute ragers while you could make a very convincing case saying the band has never sounded catchier than on the poppy, bass-driven ‘I Need A Torch’ and single ‘My Dad Is The BTK’. The organ-enhanced ‘Radium Girls’ is another album highlight before they round things out with the title track, which is another surf instrumental.

‘Roll Credits’ is available as a 12-inch and limited edition 7” box set, which comes with cover art for each song on the album, each drawn by a different artist (Chris Shary, Nathan Gattis, Perry Shall, Marissa Paternoster, Michael Saunders, Paul D’Elia, Alex Hagen, and Keith Marlowe).

Track listing:

1. Pull the String
2. Onward to Obscurity
3. My Dad Is the BTK
4. I Need a Torch
5. The Day I Beat My Brain
6. White Noise Machine
7. Radium Girls
8. Roll Credits