Night Birds – Roll Credits

Nothing has ever been out of play for New York and New Jersey band Night Birds.  The long running surf-meets-garage-punk staple has never shied from the spastic, hyper energetic extremes of their unique genre.  From their humble Grave Mistake Records origins to their more pronounced Fat Wreck Chords debut, Night Birds seldom pumps the breaks.  If they have an idea, they see it to completion, whether that means a brief EP, lengthy full length, or in the case of their latest effort, the tightly delivered mini-album, Roll Credits.

Freshly reunited with founding member Mike Hutchback, the band expands their unit to include five full-time members, upping their game to take full advantage of all the perks that come with more hands on deck.  There’s no better exemplar of Night Birds’ deserving reputation than than with lead single “My Dad is the BTK.” A wacky and paranoid tale of a boy that comes to suspect his father of being a serial killer (referencing the former cold case of the same name), his own paranoia consumes him in lines like “we share the same DNA.”  Like the best Night Birds tracks, the song is heavy on sloppy hooks and morbid humour, infusing frantic and energizing guitar solos along the way.  

But there are plenty of other reasons to pursue Roll Credits as well.  “Radium Girl” is notable for taking advantage of the infectious nature of the band’s humming organ and surf licks.  Other tracks like “I Need A Torch” wrap their stories in catchy mid-tempo melody with a little more control, while those like “White Noise Machine” and “Onward to Obscurity” harken back to the band’s early days of radiant distortion and speed like a bullet train ready to jump the tracks.

And of course there is plenty of room for band’s trademark garage-surf intros and exits.  Both “Pull The String” and “Roll Credits” bookend Roll Credits in campy instrumentals.  The former captures the frantic, distortion-heavy riffs that make for a sort of radioactive beach party (loose cousins of The Turbo AC’s).  Both wrap up the chaos with some stock movie sound bites, adding to the band’s typical b-movie mystique.

Overall, Roll Credits continues to cement Night Birds’ reputations as leading proprietors of scrappy surf and garage-punk.  They certainly didn’t invent the genre, but they’ve made their name synonymous with the niche over the past few years – and as Roll Credits makes clear, with good reason.