This Sandy City single mysteriously showed up in my inbox a while back and this watercolor sleeve caught my eye. I think you can tell a lot from a first impression like this, just a straight up good time, it's a sunny day and you capture that smiling moment with a new hat. It's friendly. Rehearsed just barely enough to come up with a strummed melody, the first track 'Graces' written only moments before, the minimal drums quiet for a moment and vocals haphazardly spoken and cracking apart. Lots of fun whoa chorus parts. Just a touch of reverb. Like Nodzzz, they've got good times rock dreams, sincerity, and just enough talent to know what parts are working. But mostly it's a collection of friends putting it out there on a tiny seven inch. Two sides of unpretentious glee.What is it with this surf fetish everyone is into lately? All I hear is some raw, backyard jam about the beach, and if this isn't summer I don't know what is. Surfing doesn't mean much to me, but it seems to inspire this kind of, not hippie, or burnout sloppiness, but just pop joy. It seems like a lot of work to get up early and swim all day, waiting forever for something to happen out of your control, but maybe this comes out of that a little. Don't force it, you'll get a shot, it won't be perfect but maybe just for yourself it's going to be right.
Really, it doesn't have to be all about the depression, or glitchy creepiness of electronics, there's room in your life for something randomly catchy, out of tune, and full of desperate fun. It feels homemade in it's nonchalance. It doesn't have to be about winning, it's the seven inches along the way.
Sandy City debut 7" out now or whatever.
3 songs of loud surf punx, indie pop, or something.
It's on Prty Ngg Records. They released a City Center 7", it's got a good song.
Sandy City is from Westport, Washington or maybe we're not.
Listen to all of our songs on Muxtape: http://sandycity.muxtape.com
Get it from Lost Sound Tapes: http://lostsoundtapes.com
Playing 3 shows in Seattle in April, that's more than we've probably ever played previously.
Our tape is called Surfin' WA. It's out of print. It will be on vinyl this summer. Okay?
Next album is called New Dog Rising. Goodbye.
Yr special.
is it geeky like nodzzz though? That surf sound is great and all, but I need CHARACTER too? I can already tell I will at least enjoy this. But is this memorable or forgettable?
ReplyDeleteYou and your cursed clever writing. You make everything TOO HONEST and TOO REAL. It makes me trust your recommendations too much, which makes me question them all over again. Somehow this paragraph was supposed to be a compliment.
It's totally geeky, unrehearsed, one take, more spazzy, more raw then the well adjusted together Nodzzz, with rougher melodies...similar vocals... I mean lyrics. I can't decide yet...it's staying with me so far....I like to make a huge mess of everything and then see what I end up thinking about in a week...or what single I think...where did I put that?
ReplyDeleteDon't ever trust me, go listen to the myspace...sometimes I reread an old post and laugh at how off I was. I reserve the right to change my mind, or be wrong. Mostly wrong.
I actually know the guys from the band. It's a mixture of silliness and sweetness. Most of the members are in other bands (Zach is the leader of iji and Jon is the leader of Blanket Truth and runs Lost Sound Tapes records), so this is a bit of a side project to have fun with friends. But they like doing it, and they already released a cassette on Fox Pop, so they're not that unserious. As for the sound, it's kind of if a indie pop band decided to play lo-fi surf punk. That's actually a complement.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI definitely got that, have to check out their other projects. It sounds like they are having fun with this, there's a history there.
If you go to the trouble of putting out a single, you're serious in my book.