Up to No Good by Birds & Batteries (EP)
LABEL: Eightmaps
“Scuttling the country leanings and diving headlong into a trendier sonic pool better suits the band’s strengths and should serve them well...”
Do a little research on San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries and the internet pundits throw around terms like alt-country, freak-funk, alt-electro and Trans-era Neil Young.
On their latest five-track EP, Up To No Good, songwriter Mike Sempert and company have quite clearly shed the conflicted country jangle that wove its way through the group’s previous two efforts and wholly embraced their cold robot souls. And they’re much, much better for it.
The band’s decision to ditch the twang and start slapping out purified funk will likely draw a few “derivative hack” pot shots. And it’s not without base—one might liken the band’s newly refined direction to the likes of LCD Soundsystem and that group’s industry contemporaries. Up To No Good is essentially James Murphy lite. But honestly, when the homage sounds this good, who cares?
The album sticks to simple arrangements of electric bleeps that tastefully dot heaps of funky, synthesized bass lines and consistently matter-of-fact crooning. It’s never as successful as the stuff you’ll hear the dudes from DFA’s finest pump out, but that’s a damn tough act to follow.
The EP’s opener “The Villain” and its ideological continuation “Lonely Guns” are far and away the effort’s most satisfying moments. Both successfully utilize a steady, driving beat, dollops of eerie strings or mechanized rumbling and textured vocals to lovely effect.
“Out In The Woods” is the most clear-cut attempt to jump on the modern dance rock bandwagon and subsequently the EP’s biggest misstep. It’s the auditory equivalent of going to Chinatown and buying knock-off Gucci luggage and bootlegged DVDs. You leave the neighborhood saying, “Oh, this is just like the real thing, I’m so smart” and then the zippers break and the movies are crap and you’re left moaning, “This sucks, I hate myself.” This song is akin to that experience.
“Lightning UNTG Version” nearly drags the EP into a deadly electro-trash pitfall but the very, very good “Sneaky Times” quickly gives you amnesia. Drippy, trippy electronic burps and Spiritualized-channeling vocals merge perfectly to create a delightfully relaxing track that’s the equivalent of aural Novocain. Comfortably numb.
With Up To No Good, Birds & Batteries have clearly found their sound. Scuttling the country leanings and diving headlong into a trendier sonic pool better suits the band’s strengths and should serve them well in what’s looking like a highly anticipated full-length follow-up. 
REVIEWED BY ALEC BRINEGAR
ALEC'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "The Villain" • "Lonely Guns" • "Sneaky Times"
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