Birds of Maya

The Philadelphia trio Birds of Maya take a no-frills approach to recording their loose and loud mix of thundering proto-metal, jagged garage rock, and blown-out hard rock. Captured at punishing volume on noise-saturated tape, their songs sound like they are recorded in the middle of a particularly sweaty basement practice -- which isn't far from the truth. Their albums, beginning with 2004's Vol. 1 straight through to 2021's Valdez, are a joyous racket borne of a desire to push their instruments and voices to the point just before rock & roll turns into noise.

The band formed in the early 2010s when guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:3WfhSbLnnCpyH5zFZP8NZA">Mike Polizze</a> responded to an ad posted by bassist Jason Killinger and drummer Ben Leaphart looking for someone who was into <a href="spotify:artist:4PI5IHRvANLL76O5gRmGKL">Blue Cheer</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4BFMTELQyWJU1SwqcXMBm3">the Stooges</a>. The three musicians joined forces and coalesced as a unit while bashing out sounds at maximum volume in a small basement rehearsal space. Their first release was culled from tapes made between 2004 and 2006. Titled Vol. 1, it was a lo-fi blast of noisy guitar freakouts that also added some classic punk and garage rock influences to the original mix of <a href="spotify:artist:4BFMTELQyWJU1SwqcXMBm3">Stooges</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4PI5IHRvANLL76O5gRmGKL">Blue Cheer</a>. The band took their time before their next release, culling songs from a huge stash of basement tapes. Ready to Howl was slightly less noisy than their debut, but still murky and raw sounding. It was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Richie+Records%22">Richie Records</a> in 2010 in the U.S. and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Agitated%22">Agitated</a> in the U.K. in 2012. Before the album's release, <a href="spotify:artist:3WfhSbLnnCpyH5zFZP8NZA">Polizze</a> had been making four-track records under the name <a href="spotify:artist:6Gszli53yrTnLQufwn34MI">Purling Hiss</a>. This soon took over most of his time and energy, and he formed a live band that included Leaphart on drums. Killinger made use of the band's downtime and formed the sludgy AOR band <a href="spotify:artist:3kgMrPFH0ks5wCrZDYh9DN">Spacin'</a>. Birds of Maya got back together to record tracks for their third album, and the suitably overloaded and loose Celebration was released in 2013 by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Little+Big+Chief+Records%22">Little Big Chief Records</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:6Gszli53yrTnLQufwn34MI">Purling Hiss</a> continued to be <a href="spotify:artist:3WfhSbLnnCpyH5zFZP8NZA">Polizze</a>'s main focus and he recorded a solo album -- Long Lost Solace Find -- in 2018. It was released in 2020 by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a>, the same label that released most of <a href="spotify:artist:6Gszli53yrTnLQufwn34MI">Purling Hiss</a>' 2010s output. Looking to corner the <a href="spotify:artist:3WfhSbLnnCpyH5zFZP8NZA">Polizze</a> market in 2021, some Birds of Maya tapes from 2014, recorded in a studio in New York, were unearthed and released as Valdez in mid-2021. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi