New Video from Alvvays

"In Undertow"

Somewhere at the intersection of shoegaze and twee pop -- two of my favorite musical things -- sit Alvvays. I got super-excited when the Canadian band released their latest single "In Undertow" a while back. I even put it on my "Favorite Songs of 2017 (So Far)" Spotify playlist.

Today, Alvvays released the official video for the song; and the Joe Garrity-directed visuals are even more shoegazey than the sounds. It's kinda perfect.

Anyway...

"In Undertow" is from the band's upcoming sophomore effort, ANTISOCIALITES, which is due on 9/8 from Polyvinyl.

New Alvvays Single! Album out September 8th.

"In Undertow"

I try to "practice" on my guitar pretty frequently. And, by "practice," I mean that I play through a few major, minor, and pentatonic scales. Maybe do a few exercises. Then I just start playing the same 5 or 6 songs I play every, single day. One of those songs is "Archie, Marry Me" by Alvvays. It's only four chords and has a solo that I can totally handle. The song is from the band's self-titled debut record which is one of my favorite things ever.

As the days have gone by, and as I've been playing "Archie, Marry Me" for a while now, I've started to wonder when we'd be hearing the next thing from Alvvays. Well, yesterday Alvvays gave us single "In Undertow" and announced that their second LP, ANTISOCIALITES, is due from Polyvinyl on September 8th.

"In Undertow" features more of Molly Rankin's understated, almost deadpan, vocals along with hints of both twee pop and shoegaze -- two great tastes that taste great together. The song, initially, didn't grab me as much as my favorites from the band's debut; but, as I've listened, the keys and the quavering shoegaze guitar have won me over.

The Canadian five-piece will be making their way back to our area with October shows at Brooklyn Steel on the 5th and Philly's Union Transfer on the 6th.

In the meantime, check out "In Undertow."

Beach Slang, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, 2016

Album Review

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.

New Beach Slang Album / Single

Beach Slang at Frank in Austin, TX in March.

"Punks in a Disco Bar"

Philadelphia's Beach Slang will always be special to me. They'll be special not only because they played the final set at Asbury Lanes when I stood right up front with CoolMom and our friends and screamed and cried a little bit, but also because frontman James Alex is constantly acknowledging something I've always known. Deep down inside, everyone is always that same teenager they've always been. We grow up and learn all the socially acceptable ways to mask that part of ourselves, but James wears it right out there for everyone to see. When I listen to Beach Slang, especially when they're playing live, I feel like I can let that part of me run wild for a little while. The thirty years since I've been 16 years old just peel away, and I can stand up front screaming and crying a little bit.

Yesterday Beach Slang announced that they'd be releasing their second LP with Polyvinyl Records on September 23rd. It's appropriately titled A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, a phrase that James Alex has said he's used to describe his band.

Along with the album announcement, Beach Slang released the record's first single "Punks in a Disco Bar." It's everything we've come to expect from the band to this point. It's jagged and loud, and Alex sells it with every fiber of his being. It owes a great deal to the sounds of my youth like The Replacements and Richard Butler. It makes me think that Beach Slang will be more than able to follow up on the unexpected success of The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us.

Beach Slang return to Asbury Park on July 28th for Night 1 of The Bouncing Souls' "Stoked for the Summer" at the Stone Pony. They'll be on tour for the rest of this summer and just a couple of hours away from me when I'm vacationing in the UK with the coolfamily in August. Hmmmm...

Check out "Punks in a Disco Bar" and the rest of Beach Slang's dates below.



Beach Slang on Tour:

7/20 -- Sydney, Australia -- Oxford Art Factory
7/23 -- Byron Bay, Australia -- Splendour in the Grass
7/24 -- Melbourne, Australia -- The Corner Hotel
7/28 -- Asbury Park, NJ -- Stone Pony^
8/07 -- Katowice, Poland -- OFF Festival
8/08 -- Bremen, Germany -- Tower Musikclub
8/10 -- Oslo, Norway -- Øya Festival
8/11 -- Gothenburg, Sweden -- Way Out West Festival
8/13 -- Eschwege, Germany -- Open Flair Festival
8/14 -- Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany -- Taubertal Festival
8/15 -- Trier, Germany -- Mergener Hof
8/16 -- Dortmund, Germany -- Freizeitzentrum West (FZW)
8/17 -- Osnabrück, Germany -- Kleine Freiheit
8/18 -- Hasselt, Belgium -- Pukkelpop
8/19 -- Marinen, Trondheim, Norway -- Pstereo Festival
8/20 -- Bodø, Norway --  Parken Festival
8/23 -- Birmingham, UK -- The Sunflower Lounge
8/26 -- Bramham Park, Wetherby, UK -- Leeds Festival
8/28 -- Richfield Avenue, Reading, UK --  Reading Festival
9/2 -- Montauk, NY -- The Surf Lodge's Summer Music Series
9/8 -- Baltimore, MD -- The Ottobar
9/8-10 -- Raleigh, NC -- Hopscotch Music Festival @ The Lincoln Theater
9/10 -- Raleigh, NC -- The Camel
9/17 -- Wilmington, DE -- Dogfish Head Analog-a-GoGo @ Bellevue State Park
10/6 -- Boston, MA -- Royale%
11/4-6 -- Austin, TX -- Sounds on Sound Festival
^ w/ Bouncing Souls
% w/ Descendents

Beach Slang, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, 2015

Album Review

If you read through the comments section on BrooklynVegan, you'll see snarky, biting, anonymous comment after snarky, biting, anonymous comment. It's almost like all of these people who spend their time commenting on posts on a music site do it just because they hate music so much. I find myself asking, "Oh, twenty-something transplant to Brooklyn from New Hampshire or Indiana or Rhode Island, who hurt you? Who made you so very jaded at such a young age?"

I think of myself as kind of a cynical person; but, when I see that stuff, those comments, I realize that I'm just a blubbering, corny pushover. Music is a transformative force for me. Music makes me do this:

I'm in the Lemuria shirt.
Photo: Christina Domingues

I think that's what appeals to me so much about Beach Slang. Beach Slang aren't a band of kids. The Philadelphia four-piece are veterans of the Philly music scene from earlier projects. Frontman and principal songwriter, James Alex, wears his heart on his sleeve and sings with all the passion and wide-eyed amazement of someone still figuring things out. Beach Slang's debut LP, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, is an ode to the healing life-force of rock music.

On opener "Throwaways," Alex sings in his Richard Butler rasp over pulsing shoegaze guitars of "trash like us," "restless punks," and "throwaways," misfits searching to be part of something bigger. "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas" instantly transports me to Asbury Lanes for the last show there. I'm pressed up against the stage with 400 of my closest friends and my beautiful wife. I'm screaming, "I've always felt stuck, alone, or ashamed" along with everyone else and instantly making that very feeling melt away.

"I feel most alive when I'm listening to every record that hits harder than the pain," sings Alex on "Ride the Wild Haze." It's, maybe, the hardest rocking song on the record; and, with that line, it kind of sums up what I think Beach Slang are trying to do for their audience. He continues, "I try a lot to write. Try to use my brain; but every time I try, my heart gets in the way." That is evident on every song here.

Acoustic guitar, strings, and piano accompany Alex's strained whisper on "Too Late to Die Young." "I ain't ever felt loved," he sings. Loud and wild records, though, "have always been enough;" and he swears, "right now I'm alright."

"Young & Alive" pounds home that point. The idea that music is a force that can make you feel something and keep you going. "Go pound the snares and amplifiers (It's wild It's wild It's wild) ... We are young and alive!" The song is probably the biggest departure sonically from Beach Slang's two EPs and, perhaps, reflects the band's transformation to a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Ruben Gallego.

"I blur all this hurt into sound," sings Alex on album-closer "Dirty Lights." Throughout the record, that sound is a wall of noisy guitars that often thrums and pulses like a beating heart. The rhythm section of Ed McNulty and JP Flexner adds heft to each of those beats and brings to life the album's repeated contrast between hard and soft. The idea that loud, wild, tough rock music can bring out the softest feelings.

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us is refreshing. It's refreshing in its absolute confidence in the transformative power of music. For me, when I listen, it's refreshing and affirming to spend thirty minutes with Beach Slang. To spend thirty minutes in my car, in my office, in my headphones with people who experience music the same way I do. With people who feel like I do.

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us is out October 30th on Polyvinyl. It's also streaming right now at NPR.

First Single From Beach Slang's Upcoming Debut LP

"Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas"

This was a weird day. I was at The Saint until about midnight last night trying to lose myself in some live music and picture-taking as I worried about a meeting I had this morning. Didn't really sleep much and spent the morning all agitated until my 9:30 call. Turned out the call wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about... ...this time. But I never really ratcheted myself down to normal levels.

I spend most of every day here at CDMHQ alone with CoolDog; and, while he's a great listener, he doesn't really say much. The only conversation I really got today was the droning of people on conference calls who were just expecting me to act all normal when I'd gotten myself so worked up.

Sorry to be all cryptic here, but the details aren't important. The only thing that's important is that, sometime around midday, Philadelphia's Beach Slang released the first single from their upcoming The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas" wraps everything I love about this band into a neat little package.

Frontman James Alex is far from a kid, but he writes songs and embraces the world with all of the enthusiasm and crazy romanticism of someone 20 years younger than he is. In his interview with me, the 40 year-old said, "Really, man, I'm still that same kid going to basement shows, reading zines, spending everything on records, slashing at my guitar, you know?"

So, when I heard the guitar that opens "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas" echoing through my little home office; and when I heard James Alex straining to sing, "I've always felt stuck, alone, or ashamed!" I thought back to a couple of weeks ago when I was screaming lyrics at the stage like some kind of kid. Like the kid I've always been.

I kind of decided that I would just let go of everything for three or so minutes as the song blasted through my little speakers. And then I decided I'd do it again. And again.

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us is due from Polyvinyl on October 30th.