Surfer Blood – Astro Coast

Absorbing all ocean metaphors between the 60s and the late 90s, surf rock has long been the medium of summer fun. But in the last decade of DIY spectacles splashing up an ocean-like internet arena, listeners fervently watched innumerable bands take the plunge into a larger online medium that mostly sounds like disorder. Of late it’s been either wipe-out, wash up deserted, get caught in riptides of messiah-like hype or judgmental dissent, or ride the wave long enough to finally earn high marks on their out-of-ten-scorecards and still see modest digital sustenance, see for example Animal Collective/Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend. Watching these bands be tested against mega waves of reception is like wondering which kid is going to go first in Lord of the Flies. But here’s Surfer Blood, a lightning rod through the cutthroat internet canonization of 00s indie. Astro Coast is a skillful and patient balancing act calmly recalling an anthology of pop, new-wave, and underground influences and then deftly rerouting it to listeners lost between Pandora and Pitchfork.

Surfer Blood – “Floating Vibes”

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This entry was written by Kent Szlauderbach, posted on February 1, 2010 at 5:05 pm, filed under New Music and tagged , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

“Swim (To Reach the End)” – Surfer Blood


This earnest anthem isn’t just for people that need to know how to swim. And Surfer Blood isn’t only for fun-in-the-sun pilgrims. Catapulting at the sound of the triple kick drum, the song delivers a trajectory that we all know as clean guitar jabs propel this perhaps inflated early single from Surfer Blood. Nothing to fret though, the rest of the album is how they earn a few gratuitous explosions.

Surfer BloodSwim (To Reach the End)

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This entry was written by Kent Szlauderbach, posted on January 23, 2010 at 6:45 pm, filed under New Music and tagged , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.