Saturday, March 20, 2010

island heart you've left/ i do not know why


You could blame my deep love of fuzzed out Jan and Dean vibing beach rock for my instant addiction to Holiday Shores' debut album Columbus'd the Whim.

It might also be argued that it's just good.
To explain how exactly it is good, come along with me for an adventure...

So you know when you're bopping along a sunny sidewalk on a perfect summer day, and the ground is dancing with wildflowers, and a Bermuda shorts wearing neighbor waves and offers you beer, and the whole day goes by without even a hint of a sunburn....but then you notice something is a little odd? Like maybe the neighbor with the Bermuda shorts is watering a purple lawn. Or the wildflowers are plaid, and the honeybees all look like they're from a Tim Burton film with larger than life heads and wings made out of tie dye lace.

That's how this album sounds.

It's all sunny, poppy, noise rock...but then something is just off. In a way that I definitely get behind. It could be the dissonant harmonies bubbling below Nathan Pemberton's charming Stephen Malkmus-esque voice. Or the wandering, plucky guitar melodies that syncopate so curiously. Whatever it is, Pemberton and his band have found a place in the growing wave of lo-fi surfer rock that is sure to make this a sonically pleasing summer.


Holiday Shores is of course participating in the magical mayhem of SXSW this weekend, but they'll be continuing on the road after Austin, warming up the colder parts of the country while the last of the snow melts.



Phones Don't Feud- Holiday Shores


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