The Messenger Birds

The Messenger Birds is not a rock band—it’s just two guys. But there is more to this two-piece than meets the eye and a lot of noise to back it up. The Messenger Birds have earned a reputation for an abrasively loud and energetic live show, and their Detroit brand of alt-rock seamlessly blends monster riffs, catchy hooks, intricate melodies, droning synthesizers, and unapologetic lyrics into a coalescence of sub-genres, a sound that all at once is difficult to categorize as simply alternative rock. At face-value, the band has often drawn comparisons to Queens of the Stone Age and Highly Suspect. As you dive deeper into their catalogue, however, you find little traces of Nine Inch Nails, Manchester Orchestra, and even Explosions in the Sky.

The debut LP from The Messenger Birds, Everything Has to Fall Apart Eventually, released on October 7, 2020, broke singles like the widely popular “Phantom Limb,” which has accumulated nearly 7 million streams on Spotify since hitting the platform, and the haunting and apocalyptic “Play Dead (Just for Tonight).” Written almost entirely in the fall of 2018 and recorded in early 2019, the album feels eerily like a premonition of a world on the brink of global pandemic and teeming with political unrest.

'Tragic Comedy' picks up right where EHTFAE left off—a world in isolation, outlandish conspiracy theories on an infinite feedback loop, overwhelming amounts of death and grief and uncertainty, and storylines that sound so hyperbolic and satirical that the only logical conclusion would be that we are all just living in a simulation and none of this is real. Poised for release on November 18, this sophomore LP features the melodic and anthemic “Midwestern Mirage,” the infectious rock groove of “If No One’s Going to Look My Way,” the frantic and anxiety-filled punk rock fever dream “Do As You Please,” and occult-centric ode to fringe Internet culture “Bad Faith Actor.”

Appearing alongside household names like Tame Impala, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Judas Priest, Korn, Turnstile, and Rise Against, The Messenger Birds have taken the festival stages at Mo Pop and Louder Than Life. The band has also supported All Them Witches, ’68, The Fall of Troy, and many more on various tour dates since 2019.