Birds & Batteries

On June 27th, 2007, at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco, Birds & Batteries celebrated the local release of their brand new album, "I'll Never Sleep Again" to a capacity audience. Now they are gearing up for the official release of the album on October 9th with regional and national touring for the summer and fall in addition to playing on an amazing local bill at the prestigious Great American Music Hall on August 25th.

Birds & Batteries has come a long way in their two years in SF. In the fall of 2005, Mike Sempert moved to San Francisco from Boston, immediately after completing an 18 song demo called, "Nature vs. Nature." Sempert took a job at the legendary Hotel Utah Saloon doing live sound with the hopes of scouting local talent. That's where he met drummer, Brian Michelson and B&B SF was born. The two started adapting the material from the demos to a live show with laptop as a crucial tool for executing the synth programming and drum machines. With Neil Thompson on pedal steel guitar, B&B found the right combination of sounds and textures that reflected Mike's recordings, but also took them to a new level in a live setting. They took this version of Birds & Batteries on the road, joining Thompson's group, Low Red Land on a national tour in the winter of 2006.

Just before leaving, B&B pressed a new version of their first recordings, called "selections from. . .Nature vs. Nature," which was newly mixed, mastered and cut down to 12 songs. The album charted in the CMJ top 200 for three weeks in a row, peaking at #135 and garnered a slew of glowing reviews.

With a two-month national tour and several regional tours under their belt, Birds & Batteries decided it was time to hunker down and document the newly developed material. 'I'll Never Sleep Again' was recorded at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studios by Ian and Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Erase Errata, Dilute and Okay.) The album features the musicianship of a whole cast of Bay Area musicians including Brian Michelson on drums; recent additions Julie Thomasson on electric piano and synths and Jill Heinke on bass; Thompson on pedal steel (Low Red Land); Katrina Weeks on Viola (The Music Lovers); and Daniela Gesundheit singing (Snowblink).

Based out of: San Francisco

Downloadable MP3: Check Myspace site

Contact:

Website: www.birdsandbatteries.com