Artist: Happy Birthday

Hails From: Brattleboro, VT

Musical Style: Indie Pop, Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock

For Fans of: Apples in Stereo, Beach Boys, Of Montreal

Subiminal Message

Why you should check them out:

Sometimes a band’s success hinges on a certain alchemy amongst its parts. In the case of Happy Birthday, all it took was three friends getting together a handful of times before scoring a record deal with Sub Pop and subsequent international acclaim. The band’s auspicious 2010 debut is filled with well-constructed, fuzzed-out, and slightly tweaked indie pop gems.

Background Check:

I used to work in a record store in Brattleboro, Vermont—Happy Birthday’s base of operations—where lead man Kyle Thomas was a daily fixture. He would shuffle around downtown with his sketchbook, chatting up locals and composing songs in his head. Oftentimes he would share his latest home recordings: his own personal takes on whatever he was into that month: T. Rex, Fairport Convention, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Norwegian Black Metal—you name it. And they were always good.

After releasing some tunes under the moniker King Tuff, and turns in psych folk outfit Feathers and the J Mascis metal side project Witch, Thomas formed Happy Birthday along with friends Ruth Garbus and Chris Weisman. After just a few shows, the band found a home for their seemingly effortless blend of pop, psych, and garage on Sub Pop Records. Tasty sonic layers worthy of the Beach Boys or Of Montreal combine with great melodies and interesting production on standouts like “Girls FM” and “Pink Strawberry Shake”—radio hits for/from another dimension.

Where you can find them in cyberspace:

myspace

On Tour:

jambase

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 4:00 am and is filed under Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Pop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.