...And the living is easy

Free for the summer from the mind control programming of the Harvard Kennedy School's liberal shills, I resolve once again to pledge my Life, Fortune, and sacred Honor to the pursuit of catchiness, at least until I get bogged down with something else. The weather has finally begun to turn here in the northeast, and it's my pleasure to bring you a new track with those sweet summer sounds we've been longing for all through the finger- and soul-numbing winter.

Dirty Gold - California Sunrise


The biggest problem with this track is that the guitar intro for the first ten seconds or so sounds exactly like "Zebra" by Beach House, and that song annoys me. But once that visceral association passed, I really got into this beachy jam by two brothers and their friend straight out of San Diego. Just one listen to the seagulls squawking in the beginning of the track, and you don't need The Google to tell you that this is a band in the Cali tradition through and through. Their debut EP was just released by Autumn Tone, the record label arm of music blog Aquarium Drunkard, and their description of "shimmering beachside pop" pretty much hits the nail on the head for this trio.

This picture of the band, featuring driftwood, a hand drum, and a sweet portable keyboard, gives a better visualization of their music than even the most intrepid iTunes programmer could. There's nothing too complicated going on here - but as my fellow Concordian Henry David Thoreau always said, "Simplify!" That was a man who knew a thing or two about transforming the individual's commune with nature into art, and the spirit of Thoreau's message shines through on "California Sunrise."

It's only May 10th (happy birthday to my brother Alex in Baghdad!), but I think that I've already found my beach anthem for the summer of 2011. I'm very much looking forward to getting down to the Cape, laying down a towel, and giving "California Sunrise" a field test. Happy summer, everyone.