Night Birds – The Other Side of Darkness

Besides being the best live band I saw all year, Night Birds have also now put out quite possibly the best punk album of the year as well. Up until now I don’t think any band has ever so eloquently referenced the Pulaski Skyway… But lemme start it like this… When I was growing up every weekend I’d watch Commander USA’s Groovie Movies on the USA network. If you don’t remember the program it was this dude in a shittily made superhero costume playing bad (good) horror movies. My dad particularly loved this oddball. Honestly I was a little too young to remember all the movies that vividly. A few bloody/creepy images remain in the crevices of my mind. For me this was the start of a lifelong love affair with horror movies. The only other thing I hold more dear is punk rock. So you can imagine that a band that combines both would be something I’d be uhhhh into.

“The Other Side of Darkness” is the punk album for the kids that not only love horror classics like The Howling but who also love the not-so-classics like The Howling 3: The Marsupials. Forget having seen all the Scream movies…have you seen all the Critters movies? Even the one in outer space??? Do you hold Class of 1984 and Sorority House Massacre 2 in the same regard some people hold shit like Titanic or fucking Forrest Gump? If yes you need this record. And I want to be clear about something, Night Birds are not cheesy at all (despite my cheesy horror movie references). This isn’t the fucking Danzig-less Misfits. These songs sound dead serious. People tend to forget the fact that a Carpenter flick like They Live (while it’s most known for a 10 minute cheese laden back-alley fight scene revolving around a pair of sunglasses) is a direct critique of advertising, big business, and politics in Amerikkka. Night Birds not only understand this but they even wrote a song about it (Hoffman Lens).

Shit even if you’ve never been to a horror convention you need this record. It’s like the second coming of the Adolescents meets the surf punk leanings of bands like Agent Orange. Put these guys right up there with OFF in terms of breathing real life back into old school hardcore. Some of the best songs on this album like Paranoid Times and Oblivious have little to do with horror movies and more to do with the horrors of everyday life like war and the possibility that when the world ends there’s really nothing more after it.

Grave Mistake and the band put out 210 copies of this with a really rad ass silk screened cover. And the vinyl sounds every bit as good as the packaging looks. This needs to be the next record you buy.

In the meantime I’ll conclude with my Joe Bob Briggsian album summary…The Other Side of Darkness: torture, disease, the end of the world, 1 eye, 2 demons, 1 murdered dog, and 2 boobs.

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