 | Surfer Blood |
Ok, yeah, so I am a little behind with this one. I know this album came out 5 months ago, and no one is talking about Surfer Blood anymore, but I started writing this way back, needed to finish it, and I do really dig the album so I wanted to give them their props. Chances are most people fall into one of two categories with these guys. (1) You were on the buzz/hype train with these guys early, rode it through SXSW, and they are so completely yesterday’s news that you won’t waste your time reading about them; or (2) you are not on the buzz/hype train, don’t care about buzz and/or hype trains, and have absolutely no clue who these guys are. Anyway, Surfer Blood is a band from Florida that got buzzed and pubbed early this year on the strength of this album, and have toured around a bit, including a stop here in Dallas I saw. They have a refreshingly light yet interesting album here that is a lot of fun from start to finish, and mixes edgy, riffy elements with much lighter, freewheeling material to come up with a good mix of the two. No two songs sound exactly alike here, and they jump from 90s alt rock angular riff visions to more obscure clean, California style riffs. While the album may not reach a unifying vision or quite reach greatness, this is an extremely impressive debut by this group, and they have shown that they can put together some great material, and will hopefully be around for some time to come.
The album largely consists of pop sensible alt-rock constructions, with some more obtuse and complicated arrangements around them at times, with airy, beach-y vocals and the occasional heavy riff and rock out. The band drew a lot of comparisons to Weezer upon this release, but I’m not sure I quite buy that. There is a similar kind of fun-loving, soft and sweet melodies meets some grungy rock elements that is similar here, but there are also a lot of more Pavement-ian angular guitar riffs (“Floating Vibes”) and some more modern indie sounding songs that they do develop quite well on their own.
“Swim” does seem to really be the single, and features a lot of noise and atmosphere smashed into the track, similar to the more modern California noise rock a la Wavves and No Age, but with more pop sensibilities. “Take It Easy” strongly plays into the beach-y “surfer” ethos of the record, with a very light, almost Carribean flavor to it. Like a heavy Vampire Weekend song. “Fast Jabroni” has a great steady dance rock beat to it that echoes VHS or Beta, and is a great song, and was probably my favorite when seeing them live. “Anchorage” echoes strongly the lo-fi 90s greats.
This band has really taken the strong influence of 90s angular art/riff rock a la Pavement and mixed in a light, fun way here with some great original songs and material that stands up as a just extremely well put together indie rock album with just really good songs from start to finish. The band seems capable of more, and maybe with more seasoning they will even be able to top this stellar debut. They have shown a mastery of being able to put together insanely catchy, fun yet delicate songs that pass the muster of the current indie scenesters by being a smart and well made album all around. They build in all the right hooks in all the right places to keep your ear happy but keep it off balance just enough to stay interesting and relevant. This is definitely a great album to check out, and now that we have hit the summer time, no time is better to blast these beach-y lo-fi art rock tunes than right now when the sun is blazing, because this album is just straight up fun.
Surfer Blood – Swim – From Astro Coast (CD, Vinyl, MP3, iTunes)
Surfer Blood – Take It Easy – From Astro Coast (CD, Vinyl, MP3, iTunes)
