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...