Beach Day Likes Walks, Boys, Shoes

Not everyone will like Beach Day, but Kanine Records started sneaking out singles for the band back in December anyway. They've released three of them now, just enough to make a 5-track EP.

It's hard to say if they will or won't. The 60s centered girl-fronted fuzzed up pop rock band has been called Best Coast on crack. It was meant as compliment, but it's also a nod to the fact that the band is too fresh to take seriously. They don't take themselves seriously.

Beach Day is a diversion and that makes it fun. 

Just to be clear, there is no comparison to Best Coast. Beach Day isn't even this band's main gig. Maybe it will be one day, but right now all three members also play in the Asheville, North Carolina-based The Black Rabbits.

More exactly, they are The Black Rabbits with a different sound, different first names, and no frontman. The question some people have to ask is if The Black Rabbits can survive. These borrowed beach garage pop grooves might be more addictive than the source they sprang from two years ago.

Claiming Hollywood, Florida, as their new hometown, the trio isn't especially great. The music isn't especially fresh. It's not something anyone could play day in and day out. But it's precisely these reasons why everything clicks. Sometimes life just doesn't need to be so fucking serious.

That pretty much sums up their latest standalone single, Boys. Clocking in at a clipped two minutes, Boys reaches for a lovesick sweet sixteenie who breaks it off with her boyfriend and goes boy crazy. The single is also slated for their upcoming LP, Trip Track Attack.


While it's unclear if some of their other singles will grace the album, it's impossible to talk about Beach Day without adding these various tracks. The very first cuts I heard last December were Walking On The Streets and its B-side, Little Red Shoes.

The single is a straightforward slow pop number. The song is all right for something that reminds me of of a roughed up Ronettes number, but mostly it proves that Beach Day's head elf Kimmy Drake can really sing. Little Red Shoes is the better number. The B-side track has more rock and less pop.

Because Kanine Records released the second single — Beach Day with the accompanying Get It Out Of Your Head — I didn't hear it until after Boys landed in my inbox. While it might sound impossibly familiar to anyone who lives closer to the real Hollywood, Beach Day is still sonic-pop perfect for any summer day with surf, sand, whatever.


Much like the first single, Get It Out Of Your Head might be the better track. The B-side sleeper is well composed, significantly smoother and fuller than any of the others. And it's almost knowing that will make people wonder just what the band intends to do on the album.

The fact is that the trio frequently puts down live shows and puts up videos that aren't nearly as polished as their studio work. The fuzzed out and dirty cuts, sometimes dropping vocals or other elements out entirely, doesn't sound nearly as good as when they play their music effortlessly and straight. In fact, it's when they try too hard that they run into trouble and fall dangerously close to becoming a parody of themselves and others.

Beach Day Finds All Boys At 7.3 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

After the review, some people might wonder why I scored them higher than most people would anticipate. It's easy enough to explain. I want Beach Day to succeed because they could make a lot of fun music without being overtly presumptuous like some alternative bands. At the same time, I freely admit that I don't always like how much I like the band.

You can pick up Boys from Beach on iTunes, along with their other singles: Beach Day and Walking On The Streets. Beach Day is currently on tour and sharing some updates on Tumblr. You can also follow the band on their Facebook page.