by Scotch LaRock
[CoolDad Note: I've been listening to Beach Slang's sophomore LP, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, for about two weeks straight. Everything that goes into a Beach Slang song is everything that CoolDad Music is about: the transformative power of rock music, continuing to see the world through melodramatic eyes, never ever outgrowing your teenage self.
Over guitars that thrum and pump like a beating heart, frontman James Alex sings "Play me something that might save my life" (on opener "Future Mixtape for the Art Kids") or "I was born at the bottom but I never belonged" (on "Spin the Dial") or "You taught me to talk and told me to shut up" (On single "Punks in a Disco Bar"). He's the rare 40-something father that's still wearing his teenage emotions on his sleeve.
My buddy Scotch LaRock introduced me to Beach Slang, and their latest drew him out from his world of small business and parenthood (rewarding in their own ways, of course) for a few words. I'll see him tomorrow at Rough Trade in Brooklyn for the release show, and for a couple of hours we'll be right there with James screaming like a couple of teenagers.]
I’ve had the feels for a little more than two years. I thought I could come out of the woodwork and write a something about the words that have come to mean so much. I’m glad James Alex found me.
It’s easy to talk about Beach Slang through references to The Replacements, Jawbreaker, and The Psychedelic Furs. I did it here once, too. It was the jumping off point. Here we are, some 30 odd songs deep including covers, and I still get the feels with every strum. What I’ve come to love during this time is that I have a complete connection. When I look around at a Beach Slang show I see the kids, the old dudes, and everyone in between; and it is always a ride. Never the same thing twice. The laughter, the mistakes, the false starts, the stories and the sing alongs. It’s all there.
“Play me something that will last… Play me something that might save my life…” I’ve said this before too. Isn’t that what we all want? We’re all looking for that someone, that something, that feeling that connects it all together. All your crazy is all my crazy. Are we brave enough to share it? We spend our time on a lifelong search growing, messing up, experiencing great love and unbelievable loss.
The words. I’ve found an advocate for what swirls around inside and is dying to get out.
“Stick your heart on your sleeve. If it breaks, stitch it onto me.”
“I can’t love you raw enough.”
“All this junk could’ve killed me. But I’m not dead. And you are why."
We don’t lose our teenage feelings. We grow up learning how to push them down. We turn into the grownups from the John Hughes movies, the ones you don’t see. So I’m gonna turn this up a little louder, scream a bit more and embrace it all.
Beach Slang you are my advocate for all that is dying to get out.
A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings is out now on Polyvinyl.
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