The Birthday Party (originally known as
The Boys Next Door) were an Australian
post-punk band, active from 1978 to 1983. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called "one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." The group's "bleak and noisy soundscapes," which drew irreverently on
blues,
free jazz, and
rockabilly, provided the setting for vocalist
Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion. Their music has been described by critic
Simon Reynolds as
gothic, and their single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene.