Ottawa's dance-punk band Birthday Girls are loud, rambunctious, and in your face. When you throw on a track from their
Birthday Girls EP, they want you to stand up and cause a raucous. It's a relatively short debut, lasting just over 15 minutes, but it is packed to the brim with heavy distortion, screaming, and head-banging punk influence...cramming all the static and intensity they can manage within that brief time span. Normally, I would be weary of such heavy, pulsating music. In fact, I usually become intimated whenever something is labeled as "punk". Although there are a few bands or songs I find myself enjoying, recordings like the Dead Kennedy and Black Flag albums tend to scare me more than anything else. Yet, when I was sent their EP, they
had to throw that damned word "dance" in there. After all, LCD Soundsystem is one of my favorite acts, and I've heard them labeled as "dance-punk" before...so why not? I found them to have a pretty unique sound, establishing a niche for themselves somewhere between
The Strokes and
Bloc Party. Much like Bloc Party, they toy around with explosive guitars and drowning synths; and relative to The Strokes, lead-singer Kyle Kilbride isn't afraid to use his harsh, screeching vocals to challenge you into waking the hell up and partying...no, raging. It's like a caffeine shot straight to your eardrums. With finals
finally over and the weekend only hours away, it's time to make up for all the lost time and release all the built-up stress. It's okay, go ahead and flip over a table or smash your crappy printer to bits....after all, it's probably what Birthday Girls would want.
"Teenagers" and "Balcony" from Birthday Girls below.
If you're interested, you can listen to the rest of the EP (or find out more info) at either their
SoundCloud,
MySpace, or
Facebook. Happy weekends everyone! Don't do anything Mick Mars wouldn't do.
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