Heads down, Pterodactyl are coming! Heh heh, ah yes, it’s Friday and I’m feeling silly, not to mention completely out of my mind on flu medication and vitamin C tablets, so the thought of scaring you all did entertain my feeble mind for a brief second but the moment has passed.
Not the winged kind luckily, these fine Brooklynians have just released their third album Spills Out on the highly esteemed Jagjaguwar label and bring their live show to us here in Berlin at the one and only West Germany. It’s possibly the only venue capable of encapsulating their psych-splattered noise-punk and promises to be an excellent show, brought to you by the as ever brilliant Paper and Iron Booking crew.
On third album Spills Out, Brooklyn noise-punk mischief-makers Pterodactyl have mutated from their abrasive loft-show roots into a glorious, broken-pop juggernaut. The band’s squealing, sweat-soaked art-bustle had rapidly put them alongside contemporaries like Oneida, These Are Powers and Parts & Labor; but Spills Out gently leads the trio towards the uplifting, wistful harmonies of ’60s rockers like The Zombies, CSNY and the pre-acid Beatles. Pterodactyl’s onomatopoetic barks have been replaced by a luxurious three-part croon; their adenoidal squawk has been expanded to include Spectorian levels of reassuring fuzz. Their most ambitious statement to date, Spills Out is triumphant, melancholic, unapologetically pop.
Here’s a couple of videos to ease you into Pterodactyl, School Glue and The Break: