I’ve got to admit that I got a giddy little rush when I saw this promo resting on the stack when I came into work. Hopefully Happy Birthday are already mildly familiar to you, as they hail from our very own town of Brattleboro. You may have caught them at either their first show at The Monkey or opening for Devendra Banhart at Higher Ground. I alas,  narrowly missed them both times and have been thoroughly bummed about it. They kind of popped up out of nowhere. According to the Sub Pop website, they started playing together because member Kyle Thomas (aka King Tuff aka member of  Witch) was too scared to play his newly written pop songs by himself and asked Chris and Ruth to join him. After meeting Kyle by way of an “obsession” with his 2008 release Was Dead under the nom-de-plume King Tuff, Sub Pop was dying to get either some more tracks out of him. The result is Happy Birthday, a self titled album produced by local Ryan Power.

The best way I can describe this album is to describe the kind of birthday party Happy Birthday would play. It would be in honor of the well liked but eccentric (maybe even crazy) kid at school. They have this party in their parent’s backyard with kitschy decorations and bowls of chips and someone’s older brother spiked the punch so everyone runs around with party hats on playing tag with confetti poppers, and no one feels embarrassed. When it’s time for the band to play, the kid’s dad gets on the mic and makes a few jokes because he’s a little sloshed, and announces them all official-like. Then the band members just walk onto stage from where they were standing in the crowd and play with their party hats on. The crowd of misfits bop around to the grimy pop of “Girls FM” and “Zit” and slow dance and sway to “Subliminal Message” and “Eyes Music.” This is the alternate reality Adventures of Pete and Pete Polaris soundtrack set in Vermont. This is the band playing in a garage that you hear on your way to school and they get stuck in your head all day in a good way. This is AWESHUM, and on sale, so come buy it.