New Jersey punk rockers Night Birds traffic in the high-velocity, hook-driven template of classic Southern California punk, balancing relentless energy with a pronounced surf undercurrent. The group took its name from a 1970s horror film directed by the eccentric cult figure Andy Milligan. In spring 2009, vocalist Brian Gorsegner, late of For Science and Psyched to Die, joined bassist Joe Keller—fresh from the breakup of his band the Ergs—to launch the project on the New Jersey Shore. They recruited guitarist Mike Hunchback, formerly of the band Hunchback, along with the first in an extended succession of drummers, and issued a four-song demo that Ride the Fury Records soon re-pressed. Their debut proper arrived as the five-song 7-inch EP Night Birds, jointly released by Dirtnap Records and Grave Mistake Records. Grave Mistake issued the band’s first full-length, The Other Side of Darkness, in 2011. Early the following year, mounting tour demands prompted Mike Hunchback’s departure; P.J. Russo, previously of Phibes and Wormeaters, stepped in as his replacement. Grave Mistake released the second album, Born to Die in Suburbia, in 2013, and later that year Night Birds made their first appearance on Fat Wreck Chords with the EP Maimed for the Masses. After cycling through more than half a dozen drummers, the band settled on Darick Slater in 2015; he anchored their inaugural Fat Wreck Chords long-player, Mutiny at Muscle Beach, whose songs addressed the grind of retail work and the craft of professional wrestling.
