The 10th studio album from garage rockers The Birthday came as no surprise. The band has been putting out albums regularly since 2006 debut "Rollers Romantics," and has also issued around 20 singles in that time. Selling out venues across the country regularly, the group is also a constant touring entity.
Yet, despite most of the band members beginning to show their age (three of the four are around 50), the songwriting never slows down and the recording never stops. The latest LP, "Vivian Killers," is classic The Birthday fare, which is no bad thing.
The band was born from the ashes of singer Yusuke Chiba and drummer Kazuyuki Kuhara's previous band, the curiously named Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (TMGE), which enjoyed wide success in the 1990s and early 2000s, and "Vivian Killers" certainly harks back to earlier glories at times.