Indie alt. Country electronic. Keyboard post-rock with a highly specific Americana twang.
In the land of the landslides, flash floods and valleys of stars, Birds & Batteries have discovered their own California summer, with their latest album "I'll Never Sleep Again". Inspired by the sparkle of 70's studio rock (Neil Young, the Eagles, Steely Dan) and driven by the compositional freedom of electronic music (Daft Punk, Hot Chip), the new album further develops B&B's original components of analog and digital, pedal steel and synthesizers, country and city.
Rich production and intricate arrangements aside, "I'll Never Sleep Again" also tells a story. Using a reinvention of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" as a jumping off point, "I'll Never Sleep Again" takes us on a journey into the heart of darkness itself, into jungles, across oceans, through sunken country-sides and flooded houses in search of love and self-realization in an era of natural disasters.
Recorded by Ian and Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Erase Errata) at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone studios, this album features the musicianship of some of San Francisco's finest, including Brian Michelson (The Loyd Family Players), Julie Thomasson (Or, The Whale), Jill Heinke (Aeron Flute Ensemble), Neil Thompson (Low Red Land), Daniela Gesundheit (Snowblink) and Katrina Weeks (The Music Lovers).
Equal parts explosive pop and epic balladry, four-on-the-floor beats and lonesome Americana, Birds & Batteries has taken another step down their path of genre-defying music. Call it country rock for the information age, the urban pastoral or what you will, Birds & Batteries' "I'll Never Sleep Again" is a work of...startling originality.
1 Heart of Gold
2 Jungles (Oceans)
3 I'll Never Sleep Again
4 A Passenger
5 Ocarina
6 After A Flood
7 Star Clusters
8 Turnstyles
9 The Squeaky Wheel
10 Soft Surveillance
11 Humanization
12 Mythology: The Great Director
13 Fireworks In Wartime
