There’s no way to prepare yourself for the moment when Peterborough, Ontario’s Birthday Boys stumble out on stage. If you’ve come for the howling, piss-and-vinegar punk-rock - you’ll be stunned by the slow, dark rhythms weaving through the set like a call to raise the dead. Come for the haunting blues-stomp - and be flattened by the wall of sound and fury.

Unleashed, the four men look as if they’re possessed by rock and roll. They stomp, spit, and sweat - their veins pop out, their eyes roll back, their pompadours hang in defeat. They drag The Blues across explosive guitar riffs and eerie desert soundscapes as they smash-and-grab their way from Muddy Waters to The Clash. All the while the duelling lead-vocalists spin blue collar tales of biblical proportions. Their bodies often sway and seem to fall back into the sounds they create - giving them a sense of confidence to match the urgency. They look at each other as if they share a secret, a gang with a secret sound. They look at you as if to say, “You want in? Just listen.”

This on-stage energy spills on to their recorded material. Their albums possess a strange and visceral energy, the inner workings of true and honest men who tell the world the way they see it.

Birthday Boys began their career by recording a full-length album Bad Blood with Greg Norman (Guided By Voices, Built To Spill) at Steve Albini’s studio in Chicago. Even this was done the honest, hard-working way. The instruments (except vocals) were recorded live - 13 songs in 14 hours. Bad Blood was released in the fall of 2008. They have since recorded and released the Daughter’s Man 7” single, and theTin Head EP is due out in March, produced by Shawn Bradley (Mellowdrone, Rikers).

Birthday Boys have toured and played with The Novaks, Band of Skulls, The Stills, Airbourne, Pierced Arrows, and many more. March 2011 will see them cross western Canada supporting Detroit’s Electric Six. They have become known for their ambitious online antics. Last year they wrote 30 songs in 30 days while on the road, posting a new song daily. The results can be seen here. For the upcoming western Canadian tour the band will produce 10 rockumentary Webisodes in 10 days while on the road!