Summer may be over for the kids, but it's just starting for the likes of me, and fortunately I just found my Indian Summer anthem: Beach Slang's 'Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas' from their forthcoming album The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Uson Polyvinyl Records.
I can't speak to singer/guitarist James Snyder's influences, but to me the production and delivery on 'Bad Art' is reminiscent and nostalgic of the Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler and his best, raspiest vocal performances. The ringing-out guitars, hard-driving drums, the melodies - all of it begs for scream-alongs and fists pumping in a sweaty pool of youth. My only problem with 'Bad Art' is that it ends too soon, those "doot-do-do's" teasing another comeback in the song that just drift into an unwelcome ending.
If you need another reason to fall in love with James and Beach Slang, his banter in between songs on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert is completely charming and disarming. At the end of his set, James says "life's beautiful, but really tough too". That sentiment is obviously one he wears on his sleeve, lapel, wherever he can pin it. And it reverberates through his music, making "emo" anything but a bad word.
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