Press
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Panorama (2010)
"rare magic"
"good god, what a song"
"sophisticated sounding electro pop"
"little gem"
"adventurous and perplexing"
"intriguing and alluring"
"hard-to-describe-but-easy-to-love"
"infectious live shows"
"swooning nostalgia"
"always brilliant, and never disappointing"
"graceful and surprising"
"sonic craftsmanship"
"one of the few local bands that's pretty difficult to pin down"
"Birds & Batteries has definitely left a large impression on my year in music"
Up To No Good EP (2009)
“A bit like a high-concept mashup, this fusion of two of the slickest eras of pop production produces some polished results … an electronic landscape that's actually pretty akin to being out in the woods, immersed in a barrage of chattering, ebullient life”
“Like watching Halloween on a bunch of cough syrup and then having a dizzy and slowed dance party at the end”
“Meticulously funky … twenty minutes of synth pop bliss”
“Epic art pop”
—Dazed Digital (Dazed and Confused)
“Get ready for a new favourite band. There's the mellow and totally brilliant basslines you used to locate on a Bowie album, mixed up with the kind of gorgeous vocal harmonies Super Furry Animals had at their most Beatles-esque peak”
“It's like a cinnamon roll melted in my ear hole”
“Creepy keyboards I associate with Thriller ... worth sampling at length”
“Just plain good”
“This is some freak-funk, alt-electro right here. Blast it in honkey-tonk dives and haunted houses alike.”
“Early Brian Eno”
“Strutting electro-funk”
“Aural craft”
“Unusual, yet gorgeous”
“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.”
“Mesmerizing intersection between pop, rock and electro”
“The genius of the group is you never can tell”
“Super smart writing and production use ambient measures to carry the listener through another level of musicality”
“A dynamic but startlingly cohesive EP”
“Birds & Batteries bring it from pretty much every genre”
I'll Never Sleep Again (2007)
“I'll Never Sleep Again is one of the best things I've heard this year.”
“When Neil Young discovered the synthesizer, he made Trans. San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries demonstrate another—dare we say better?—way that combination could have worked.”
“Mike Sempert moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago with a batch of home recordings (2005’s Nature vs. Nature) crackling with Neil Young swooning and warm electronics. Since then, he’s built his bedroom project into a rock quintet, releasing a studio album (2007’s I’ll Never Sleep Again), and paying dues with a relentless touring schedule.”
“This feels like it should’ve been the third BAND album, after the S/T release and picks up where “Unfaithful Servant” left off. This is an album so gorgeous I find myself playing it over and over again because it lulls you into magic.”
“For a band that cites both Fleetwood Mac and Daft Punk as influences, Birds & Batteries arrived with surprising coherence on 2006’s Nature vs. Nature, and followed up nicely last year with I’ll Never Sleep Again.”
—The Onion AV LA
“These songs sound fresher and more inventive; sweeping arrangements and the occasional sonic freak-out add to the already rich landscape, including an ambitious revisioning of Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold.’”
—East Bay Express, The Best Music of 2007
“B&B are able to acknowledge their influences without being limited by them. If the plaintive pedal steel and rustic lyrics seem familiar, the synthesizers and drum machines that propel the songs forward certainly don’t. It is just this collision that makes B&B so exciting and different—and what keeps me hoping that they continue to surprise us.”
“Such smartly sequenced albums translate into hypnotically cohesive live sets. Birds & Batteries complement their electro-western tunes with pulsing dance numbers… and breezy pop gems.”
“The marriage of down-home themes, countrified twang, and futuristic effects. Think trombones and laptops, violins and outer space, natural disasters and simple necessities, birds and batteries… this collection is a mix of many styles and flavors and is actually a sonic tale of living in this great age.”
“A little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll, a little bit electronic and all kinds of intriguing pop.”
—The Onion AV Bay Area
“… Charmingly human yet dreamy…”
—Willamette Week
“Blending together hypnotic vocals and melancholy melodies, Birds & Batteries have combined the best of both worlds and successfully earned a place at the top in the Local Band ranks. With influences ranging from Daft Punk to Neil Young, the band is a nuclear bomb waiting to explode all over indie countdowns and the pages of Spin.”
“Birds & Batteries is an oddly appropriate moniker for a band whose synthy soundscapes seem to float effortlessly in the air.”
“We don't say this lightly, because there are really a lot of great artists coming out of the Bay Area, but we do have a current favorite: Birds & Batteries. We’ve been telling you about this co-ed quartet for a while now and our expectations for their new record were really high. Thankfully, its good news: we love I’ll Never Sleep Again. It’s still the B&B we met on their last release, but this time the woeful steel guitar and Mike Sempert’s deep drawl are buffered by better productions. including warm bursts of synths so thick you could hold them in your hand. The record starts out by making the simple, straightforward Neil Young classic, “Heart of Gold” into an existential epic, and we love the song “Star Clusters” so much thats it's secured a solid entry in our top 10 tracks of the year.”
“There is so much detail and subtlety to hear in this album, it’s near impossible to get sick of it… They manage not only to make each song mesh within itself, but the entire album is an unbelievable journey that has absolutely no potholes.”
“I’ll Never Sleep Again makes good on the promise of Michael Sempert’s first self released disc from 2005, Nature vs. Nature, fleshing out his bleary electrocountry songs with a warm studio sheen. The palette is a satisfying mix of synthesizers and pedal steel, with washes of sound bouying Sempert’s undertow croon. It’s hard not to hear a lot Neil Young in the Harvest-era balladry… with standout tracks like the Fleetwood Mac-ish “Turnstyles” taking up well-worn grooves remeniscent of ’70s rock’s mellowest highs.”
“I’ll Never Sleep Again is a damn good album—every bit as good as Nature vs. Nature. Although the previous album did amazing things with garage folk-tronica, the new album has kept the same general aesthetics but also utilized insightful production to capture and hone that sound.”
“The songs on I’ll Never Sleep Again have a couple of things in common. First, the lyrics hint at existential musings and/or social commentary… Second, the compositions are deceptively simple. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a complicated symphony of sounds, brought to you courtesy of a large variety of musicians and instruments… For those willing to give it a real listen, I’ll Never Sleep Again offers clever lyrics and sophisticated musical fusion.”
“While Nature vs. Nature was strong, I’ll Never Sleep Again represents significant advancements in both production and songwriting. The new songs are ambitious, featuring dense layering of synths and effects, and Sempert’s voice is strong and commanding. Unlike many releases, the album feels like an album, with songs leading into each other and themes developing as the release progresses.”
“San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries float in on a wave of synths on their latest album, “I’ll Never Sleep Again.” “Ocarina" starts off with an 8-bit riff that takes me back to my Dragon Warrior days, cemented further with the “give me a song to remember the world by” lyrics. One of the most impressive things about this band, however, is their range, one that is not afraid to include some slide guitar on the title track, which in turn, makes them sound like a 21 century cowboy."”
“Electronic country meets Randy Newman-ish vocals? Now that’s a mix we can get down with."
“Their music draws you in, wraps you up then lays you down gently, lush with well-placed electronic elements that mingle with the woeful steel guitar. It sounds something like what I imagine Neil Young’s Harvest could have been in an alternate universe, had it been recorded in an industrial warehouse rather than a Northern California barn.”
Nature Vs. Nature (2005)
“San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries isn’t just a standout local band, but one that could hit the national radar.”
“Tip your hat to San Francisco resident Mike Sempert, aka Birds & Batteries for making eccentric music without worrying about fitting into an easy genre.”
“This music has a gritty sound that could pass as either alt-country garage rock or fuzzy-synth psychedelia. No song remains completely in either category. Admirably, much of the album settles in that space between organic warmth and synthetic cool and feels right at home.”
“Blending together rootsy Americana, post-rock and electronica, the stuttery programmed rhythms and hypnotic loops of arpeggiated melodies contrast well with Sempert’s deep, melancholic vocals and guitar, bass and drums.”
“I recently received a copy of Birds & Batteries Nature vs. Nature and have to say its one of the most unique and best things I’ve heard in quite some time… This album is a lo-fi gem that deserves more recognition that it found upon its initial release. Any label reading this should immediately look up Birds & Batteries and pick Nature vs. Nature up for a proper release.”
“Birds & Batteries’ Nature vs. Nature is trying to add something fresh to the musical lexicon, and I think they’ve succeeded. Especially considering that all the music on the album, all the layers of beats, riffs, melodies and harmonies, came straight out of Mike Sempert’s brain.”
“Synths and beep-boop fantasticism only get more overwhelming as Nature vs. Nature progresses. I’m not exactly sure what the band is try to do here, but if it’s freak me the fuck out, mission accomplished.”
—Casey Jourman, music editor for The Willamette Week
“Birds & Batteries fold song structures like origami, then purposefully glue them rhythmic keyboard riffs and pedal steel chords.”
—The Weekly Volcano