Night Birds and Big Eyes, two punk bands signed to Richmond’s Grave Mistake Records, will be playing Gallery 5 on June 8 with Iron Reagan and Unholy Thoughts. The show is being presented by Vinyl Conflict, Richmond’s favorite hardcore punk record store located in Oregon Hill.
Night Birds and Big Eyes, two punk bands signed to Richmond’s Grave Mistake Records, will be playing Gallery 5 on June 8 with Iron Reagan and Unholy Thoughts. The show is being presented by Vinyl Conflict, Richmond’s favorite hardcore punk record store located in Oregon Hill.
Both Big Eyes and Night Birds are releasing their respective sophomore full length efforts on Grave Mistake Records. Punk and hardcore fans should recognize Grave Mistake Records; the Richmond-based label has relased a great deal of material by bands from RVA and the surrounding regions, including Government Warning, Direct Control, Deep Sleep, and Wasted Time, as well as tons of other releases by bands from all over the world.
Big Eyes’ new album, Almost Famous, came out May 14 and is currently being streamed on Spin.com. The band’s first LP, 2011’s Hard Life, came out shortly after they had relocated from Brooklyn to Seattle. It established their brand of rock and roll, as interpreted by New York punks who moved to the West Coast and incorporated surfy riffs into their East Coast style. With forlorn vocals by frontwoman Kate Eldridge, their resulting sound is reminiscent of Best Coast, but with a more punk edge, and not nearly as much self loathing.
The punk-y pop-rock power trio’s new album has been enjoying almost overwhelmingly positive reviews, and has met a lot of critics’ high expectations in the follow up to their first record. If you’re looking for Almost Famous on wax, the LP is available locally at Vinyl Conflict, Steady Sounds, and Deep Groove.
Night Birds are releasing their second full length, Born to Die in Suburbia, on July 9th. This is the second LP that Grave Mistake is putting out for the New Jersey band, who released their debut, The Other Side of Darkness, back in in 2011.
Night Birds also just released an EP, Maimed for The Masses, earlier this month on Fat Wreck Chords. The EP is currently streaming on Alternative Press’s website. Night Birds vocalist Brian Gorsenger told AP that the EP’s title track is a “tribute of sorts to wrestling legend Mick Foley [Mankind/Dude Love/Cactus Jack]. It’s about giving something you love your all, even if it means bloodying and destroying yourself along the way.” Gorsenger compares touring and performing in a punk rock band to the actual physical toll of being a professional wrestler. “There is something about that 30 minutes when you’re playing where your well being just doesn’t seem to matter.”
The ode to a wrestling legend is a good illustration of who Night Birds are–a New Jersey/New York punk band with a love of things like cable television, horror movies, and playing really fast. In their music, you can hear the obvious influence of other 80‘s East Coast legends, such as The Misfits. The band also takes cues from early punk bands that hailed from the other end of the country, such as The Adolescents and The Dead Kennedys. Night Birds will be touring in support of Born to Die in Suburbia later this summer, in addition to dates at Chaos in Tejas next week. They will be back in RVA in August with The Zero Boys if you miss them on Saturday at Gallery 5.
But you really should not do that. In addition to Night Birds and Big Eyes, this show features some excellent local openers. Iron Reagan, a fast grindcore band that includes members of Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour, recently released their debut LP, Worse Than Dead, through Virginia label Magic Bullet and Maryland’s A389 Records. Unholy Thoughts play dark, angry hardcore, and feature members of Government Warning and Southside Stranglers, among others. Their debut LP, The Attic, was released last year by RVA’s own Forcefield Records. With Iron Reagan and Unholy Thoughts rounding out the bill, this show is certainly going to be an early summer banger.
Night Birds, Big Eyes, Iron Reagan, and Unholy Thoughts will perform at Gallery 5, located at 200 West Marshall St, on Saturday, June 8. The show starts at 7pm, and admission is $8. For more information, check out the facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/463876457015023
