Artist · EveryDisc catalogue

The Birthday Party / The Boys Next Door

The Birthday Party (originally The Boys Next Door) was an Australian post-punk band that existed from 1978 to 1983. The band did not have much commercial success, despite positive reviews from music critics, including the famous British radio host John Peel. The collective performed very dark and rather avant-garde post-punk with lyrics on the theme of sin and damnation, using Old Testament imagery. The Birthday Party was subsequently named one of the "darkest and most challenging post-punk bands of the early 1980s." Professional critic Simon Reynolds classified the collective's style as gothic rock. Their song "Release the Bats" has repeatedly been cited as an influence on gothic music.