Astro Coast

After changing their name from Jabroni Sandwich in the spring of 2009, Surfer Blood generated a great deal of hype in the months that followed leading up to the release of Astro Coast, their debut album. On December 14, 2009, Pitchfork even listed Surfer Blood's lead single, "Swim (to reach the end)," as number thirty-seven on their list of the 100 best tracks of 2009.

Although Surfer Blood's name and the occasional use of a tremolo pedal might put them up against bands like the Beach Boys, the majority of their album is straight up indie rock. Every song seems to have glimpses of the beach, but their overall sound is much more complex. Astro Coast opens with "Floating Vibes," an incredibly catchy pop track which presents the surfer influence briefly halfway through with the use of heavy reverb and Dick Dale stylistic picking before returning to the fuzzed out guitar and driving drums that make the song memorable. There seems to be a heavy Silversun Pickups influence in the guitar tone which works exceptionally well for this song. The same influence is also present on the ninth track, "Anchorage."

The first single "Swim" follows "Floating Vibes" with what I can only describe as Animal Collective meets Weezer's "blue album." Every song on the album appears to pull ideas from a different band so it's no wonder this song led Surfer Blood to be instantly described as "Weezer-esque" without having heard anything else on the record. Vocals saturated with reverb lead the way on what will no doubt be a crowd favorite when performed live.

The final clear influence that can be heard in Surfer Blood's music is Vampire Weekend. This comparison is most easily drawn from the tracks, "Take It Easy" and "Fast Jabroni." It's possible fans of Vampire Weekend may shun Surfer Blood's music on account of being too similar, but the album as a whole successfully blends so many styles that I still consider this an incredibly successful debut. With a nod to David Lynch on "Twin Peaks" and the word "jabroni" in two of their track names, it's clear they wanted to let their fans know a little about them and how they got their start. They're young and still fairly new at making music together so I have no doubt they will only improve from here on out. Look for them to take the college market by storm this year.

Similar Artists: Vampire Weekend, Silversun Pickups

Track Suggestion: Floating Vibes

The first thing I thought when I listened to this record was that they had managed to perfectly recreate the guitar tone of Autolux, one of the great obscure space rock bands. In a way, this album is like the Future Perfect sequel that never happened, and for me, that's a very positive thing. The songs feature a definite surf-style slant, but the textures and tones are 100% indie rock. If you don't get swept away with the first track, this record probably isn't for you, but certainly, this will be a highly regarded debut by year's end. Expect some very positive reviews pouring out in the next few days.

I know they have the word "surf" in their name, but despite what many writers claim, Sufer Blood do not actually have anything to do with surf rock. Maybe a little Pixies, a little Sonic Youth, a little Weezer, but no Ventures or Beach Boys here. This album is kinda like Never Mind the Bollocks in that four skyscrapers of a song tower over the landscape: "Harmonix", "Swim", "Floating Vibes", and "Twin Peaks". That shouldn't diminish the other songs in any way though, since not every building can be the Empire State Building. The Flat Iron building and the Chrysler Building are pretty cool too. Lead singer JP laces his songs with water imagery (besides "Swim" and "Floating Vibes" there's also "Anchorage". And the album's called Astro Coast. And there's a picture of a shark's mouth on the cover). This is great, anthemic, jangly guitar rock, with echo-y vocals that refreshingly strain at times to convey a little extra emotion. It's an easy, summertime album to vibe too, but if I had to guess I'd say these guys are more destined to be the Toadies than Smashing Pumpkins. But that's not a dig, because the Toadies were pretty damn good too.

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