Rising Kaurna land / Adelaide queer rock outfit, The Empty Threats, have released their second album happy birthday, via Anti-Dismal and Short Corner Records.
As the name suggests, happy birthday – the exhilarating sophomore album from the Adelaide band lovingly referred to by fans as “The Empties” – is certainly a celebration. Well, of sorts. It’s the sound of a sweaty, scuzzy house party; full of anxiety, messy social relations, desire, pill-popping and bruised, bopping bodies, which threatens to descend into total chaos. But for all its frenzy and rollicking bliss, it also covers the terrain of a celebration’s aftermath – those painful revelations that turn crystalline at the break of dawn. If their 2023 debut Monster Truck Mondays was charged by a queer, radical politic that looked outward, then happy birthday sees the band turning inward, exploring the pleasures and anguish of romance, friendship and one’s own inner life. In a world where the rougher edges of neurodivergence are sanded down and made palatable, happy birthday, recorded and produced by guitarist Matt Schultz, is a sprawling, euphoric garage rock record that positions itself in the muck of this reality, refusing to quieten or reconcile its many ideas or energies.
The album was written during a self-imposed, two-week sequestering in an old sheep ranch, located in the remote, mountainous Flinder’s Ranges, five hours north from Adelaide. The band’s (made up of Stu Patterson (they/them – [vocals / saxophone / clarinet]), Matt Schultz (they/them – [guitars]), Lenny Regione (he/him – [bass guitar]), Michael Bond (he/him – [drums]), Alex Dearman (him/him – [guitar]) and Grace Vandals (she/her – [vocals / guitar / synth] with contributions from former member Venus (they/them- guitar/backing vocals) aim was to lock themselves away and return to the city with a suite of songs. With no internet service and precarious power sources (whenever the band wanted to plug in their amps, they had to run outside and turn on a generator), they emerged with the 15 songs that make up happy birthday. “It really felt like one of those ‘go to the desert and lose your mind’ kind of things” says Patterson.
Much of the record deals with moments of the mind looping and spiralling. Elsewhere, minds are shredded by “brain rot”, cutting riffs, and melodic melancholy, exploring disconnection and restlessness.
Wanting to capture the liberating wildness of their live shows, Empties opted to record their new record live, and ran through songs in order, working their way down. “It was about creating space and not taking up too much room between people, letting everyone have their own realm” says Shultz about the recording progress.
Release: September 12, 2025, Anti-Dismal / Short Corner Records