Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

(out now on Kanine)
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Its interesting how schizophrenic “internet-based favor” can be – a hoard of faceless blogs can pounce at the first toss of a fresh piece of meat, skin it and wear it before they apparently discern just what species of animal they’ve desecrated with their attention and hoopla. It seemed, back in November when this album leaked, that we had, yet another, next big thing fervor starting – but this West Palm Beach quartet of surfy/reverb/hand-clappable pop lovers have already received some backlash from quickdraw bloggers who would castigate it for its familiar taste and aroma, revealing its shared (or cribbed) molecules from easy-stepping, shiny power-pop charmer acts like Weezer or The Shins.

Well, this review, I assure you, is free of bitter-bastard-isms, because I only just finally found this album and spun it this week – so it’s still fresh – which, like recently uncorked wine or homemade peanut-butter cookies, is when Astro Coast is at its best. Delicious fuzzy guitars, simple and steady rhythms, power-chord riffs, cajoling hooks, very car-stereo-road-trip-ready, very fancyfree out on the town at night kind of soundtrack balladry – all nicely fuzzed by a penchant for classic lo-fi scuff-rock, and utilizing an airy and echoey reverb vocal effect to put a nice twist on these surf-pop rockers. But while some (jaded) will find it too lucid or quickly staled – others should treat it for what it is, a fine document of a young band finding their way with wholesome, if a little naïve, flavors of tested indie-power-pop, with their own, steadily-developing, signature.