A long time ago, situated on the brick sidewalks of Church Street in the smallish Pennsylvania college town of West Chester, was a coffee shop called Fennario’s. Fennario’s had it all: Tile flooring the color of teeth, loosie cigarettes sold from a plastic jar at the register, and a stale, cramped attic in which a vibrant DIY punk scene flourished in the early aughts. Damn good coffee, too.
Sadly, Fennario’s closed over ten years ago (RIP). But were they still open, Birds? (spelled with the question mark) is exactly who you’d see there, blowing out the roof with their new single, “Over It.” With earnest, conversational vocals in the vein of Modern Baseball and the melodic guitar work of an overdriven Algernon Cadwallader, Birds? is here to remind the world that Pennsylvania is, and shall remain, the beating heart of fourth wave emo.
“Over It” is yearning and energetic, with well-crafted lyrics and mathy-by-way-of-metal guitar lines. The ensemble vocal delivery adds an anthemic restlessness to lines like “The winds of change they blow but never the right way” and “What’s the point of trying if I’d rather be in bed,” which are dropped with the casual yet biting honesty of a text message sent at 2:00 a.m.
If Birds? is a question, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Listen to “Over It” below, and keep an eye out for their upcoming LP We Will Never Know, and That’s Okay, set to be released this spring.
Written by John Bagatta
