Fuck Your Birthday

FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY is an American garage rock / math rock band born in Morgantown, WV, and currently based in Wenzhou, China. Formed in 2012, the group first existed as a trio with vocalist/guitarist Christopher Henry and drummer Roman Meisenberg joined by bassist/vocalist Michelle Fincham on their January 2014 debut EP, The Cymbal Barks Louder Than You. Following its release, the band forted onward as a duo, and embarked on the Jet-lag Revival Tour, followed by the Li EP in October 2014. June 2015 saw the release of the Future Teller EP, at which point the band began working on material for a full-length record.

FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY’s debut LP, Touchless Automatic, was released in April 2016, as Henry accepted a job as an ESL teacher in Wenzhou, China. April of 2017 saw Meisenberg travel to Wenzhou for the band’s first international tour, Spring Roll 2017, which hit eight cities over two weeks across Southern China—watch "Live in Shanghai” via the FYB YouTube channel. In October 2017, Meisenberg returned to Wenzhou to play more shows and work on new material, a selection of which saw release in June 2018, as Maydays, which was followed by the Maydays Tour.

On July 12th 2019, FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY released a split 7” EP with China-based Space Monkey, that same day launching a three-week US tour, which was immediately followed shows in China. While additional touring and recording was being planned for later that year, the band was at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Having remained fairly silent since, the band released a new single “House Of 1000 Corners,” as part of the Nefarious Industries label compilation celebrating its 100th release, NEF100: Burn After Hearing.

Now, FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY follows that single with the succinct and lively BBQd EP, packing a plethora of hook-snagged grungy rock into three new songs. Christopher Henry elaborates, “In recent years, a meme spread around China in which a man autotune-croons, ‘完啦, Barbecue啦’ over clips of fails or awkward situations. It basically means, ‘oh shit, I’m cooked.’ With that sentiment in mind, we’ve imagined a character that lives in that kind of world and ties these three songs together. He always seems to get himself stuck in rocky hard places. He succumbs to alcoholism on ‘Moonshine’ as he isolates himself outside of an unspecified rural Appalachian town. Then he finds himself in an awkward situation trying to reconcile his strict notions of masculinity with a kiss between buddies on ‘Propane Accessories.’ This leads to an overcompensation in violent crime that lands our protagonist in prison. ‘Repeat Offender’ is the final (yet not so final) act of this vicious circle. In a world where mass-shootings, police-brutality, and bigotry in our culture becomes motif rather than outlier, we are all BBQd.”

The band filmed a video for “Repeat Offender,” about which Henry writes, “One might associate motif with highly respected art, but who’s to say that it can’t be used to describe depravity? This short ditty aims to hold a mirror up to horrors of the world that have become motif in modern times. Musically, it pulls inspiration from nu metal, boom-bap, and noise rock. It’s extremely fun to play live, even if it leaves audiences stunned by its brevity.”

BBQd was recorded by the band in Wenzhou, mixed by David Klug, mastered by Bill Henderson at Azimuth Mastering, and completed with photography by XiaTieNiu. Fans of Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Death From Above 1979, Royal Blood, Tera Melos, Whores., Primus, Refused, and Chevelle should definitely check out FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY.