Review
Bangers
Bird

Bird is the Bangers record I wanted in 2013. Crazy Fucking Dreams is a good record, it was just a little less direct than I wanted from the band, being a little more on the introspective and drawn out (in punk terms) side of things than an aggressive and, er, banging approach. It was good, but Bird is better.

It gets aggressive fast with “No!” and then rumbles into the deeper toned “Mannequin,” where some bass distortion gives a nice heavier vibe that gives punch without doom. The deeper pitch keeps the punk aggression going forward but with a little extra kick. The best songs rumble and plow, accelerating instead of spinning the wheels.
Where Bangers mixes up the tempo, it has a little less punch. Yes, it’s essential to vary the pace on an album—even a 4-song single for that matter—but when the songs slow down, as in “Vibrate,” it come across as more repetitive and redundant whereas the hard charging songs keep their momentum. It’s often best when the band culls these two styles into a middle concoction. “Half Human,” a middle song on the record that takes a repetitive and catchy chorus but adds a unique up/down complexity within the tone. It’s like a weird Off With Their Heads, beating a self-deprecating drum but with an askew take on pop sound.

While there’s a really introspective vibe, Bangers’ songs transcend the first person. It’s not journal-style emotional pouring like The Lawrence Arms, but universal frustration like OWTH. “Into my lungs, under my finger nails,” (credit: “I Don’t Feel Like I’ll Ever Be”) these are songs that dig deep, leaving a coarse opening and pouring with bloody emotion, with enough grit to keep that flow unpredictable, beautiful, and ugly.

Some favorites here are “Mannequin” and “Asimov,” but there really aren’t down points. Sometimes Bird gets bogged down when songs look more inward than out, but it’s singalong and intelligent: something to rage to and let lose, but also a record to get lost with the lyric sheet.