Birth (Defects)- Fictional Days
$7.00 - $25.00
Birth (Defects)- Fictional Days
$7.00 - $25.00
*NOTE THIS IS A PRE-ORDER AND WILL SHIP ON AROUND MAY 22ND. SOONER IF WE HAVE THEM BEFORE THEN.
The final collection of songs by this guitar-based music band.
Including covers of Sonic Youth,
The Comsat Angels, and others.
Co-released by Expert Work Records and Reptilian Records.
Recorded by J. Robbins (Jawbox, The Dismemberment Plan)
Mixed by Barrett Jones (KARP, Autoclave, Foo Fighters,
Nirvana, Mission Impossible)
Mastered by Matthew Barnhart (Silkworm, FACS, Metz)
“Noise rock for noise rock nerds by noise rock nerds. There’s a
certain kind of toxic goo mutation happening here: Bleach-era
Nirvana hooks, grueling Cherubs-style riffs, a persistent clang
and skree of too many late nights listening to Japanese noise. In
an alternate universe, these are left-field hits of a radio station
that only spurts to life when everything’s gone to hell”
- Lars Gotrich, NPR Music/Viking’s Choice
"We have a limited amount of time on this Earth." A.C. Thompson, author of Torture Taxi stood mouth to ear, and gave me an earful. "So if I have to choose how I want to spend this time I absolutely don't want to spend any of it doing stupid shit."
It was a cold and overcast San Francisco night but the words had the ring of the eternal and remembering them while listening to Birth (Defects) final record of alt takes, covers and unreleased from an underground songbook of significance, a rejoinder: you’re goddamned right.
Because while the methodology for choosing the songs here is only hinted at, they very much have a fuck-you feel that I’d like to imagine befits a singer who has to work pedal boards and hold all 140 pounds of himself aloft for the better part of 30 minutes to get the job done at all. All while voicing songs from Sonic Youth (Sunday), The Comsat Angels (Postcard), Nirvana (I Hate Myself and Want to Die) and SSD (How Much Art) among other originals.
Recorded by J Robbins, mixed by Barrett Jones (Pussy Galore, KARP, Nirvana) and mastered by Mathew Barnhart, Birth (Defects) have moved the needle from nice songs to a kind of urgency that would make the original authors proud it seems. Mostly because it feels, for them, almost more necessary to do this, this time, than it was for the authors’ the first time.
Which is the glory of those who do without concern/interest in recompense. That is, when no one gives a fuck what you do, you can do just about anything and here Birth (Defects) do exactly that and the sound to my ear wipes any and all slates clean and shows that they heard the Platonic triad working through these tunes, their heads and ultimately into a record that if you don’t listen to it means more about what you can hear than anything about what they didn’t do. Which is usually the case in the face of an almost perfect record. I dug it, and you should too. – Eugene S. Robinson, BUNUEL
Sean Gray / Vocals, Electronics
Rob Savillo / Guitars
Jeff Byers / Guitars (A1)
Ian Graham / Bass (A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5)
Chris Morawski / Bass (A1)
Erik Wisler / Drums (A1, A3, B3, B4)
Recorded in Baltimore, Maryland, on June
27, 2015, (A3, B3, B4); June 19, 2017, (A1);
and June 15, 2024, (A2, A4, B1, B2, B4) at
The Magpie Cage. Mixed at Laundry Room
Studio in Seattle, Washington, on October 22
through 25, 2024.
Mastered at Chicago Mastering Service in
Chicago, Illinois, on September 13, 2025.
Artwork, “Decomposition Phases (I-IX),”
3D-printed PLA and custom laser-cut vitrine,
February 2026.
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Bret Lanahan / Vocals (B2), Drums (A2, B1, B2)
Joey Generic / Vocals (B5), Drums (A4, B5),
Electronics/Noise (A2, A4, B5)
Matt Buie / Vocals (A2, B5)
Terence Hannum / Synthesizers (B1)
Nick Skrobisz / Engineering (A1, A3, B3, B4)
J. Robbins / Engineering (A2, A4, B1, B2, B5)
Barrett Jones / Engineering (A3), Mixing
Matthew Barnhart / Mastering
Terence Hannum / Art
Eli Kasan / Layout & Design
Ahmad Zaghal / Photography
Track Listing
- 01 Deceiver
- 02 Sunday
- 03 Doubts
- 04 Scapegoat
- 05 Postcard
- 06 I Hate Myself and Want to Die
- 07 Youth
- 08 Take
- 09 How Much Art
Pressing Information
Limited to 300 copies pressed on color in color vinyl (black inside of cobalt blue).
FIRST TEN ORDERS GET A “l限定版” (limited edition version) WITH A SCREEN PRINTED TOTE BAG, A SPECIAL EDITION PRESSING OF THE RECORD WITH OBI STRIP, A 1" BUTTON, AND STICKERS".
