There's a chance that two of the top ten albums in 2010 will be released next Tuesday. One of them, the latest album from Spoon, is expected - nay, commanded - to make those year-end lists. The other is probably way off most people's radar.
I've neglected to get this posted for about 10 days since I wrote it, so "way off most people's radar" is now limited to those who don't read any music blogs, Pitchfork, Stereogum or the South Florida alterna-weekly paper City Link. Thankfully, I know that group includes most people.
Surfer Blood is to puke out their debut album Astrocoast on Tuesday. Recorded in their dorm room at the University of Florida, the 10 songs on the album are feedback-laden, melodic, classic feeling songs the bring to mind the all manner of indie sounds from the mid-90s til now.
There is a palpable cross-section of Weezer-Pavement-Sloan to just about every track while managing to sound like the boys are aping none of them. Yes, they sing about girls, but they also sing about television, as in "Twin Peaks," included here.
The first words on the album's first track beg somebody to "forget the second coming/I need you here right now." This album sounds like the second coming of the alternative nation, partially because so many of those mid-90s buzz bands are touched, even momentarily, on Astrocoast. For me, that's a good thing, because Surfer Blood doesn't really sound like any of them. Even the bands I mention above are only echoed because nothing specific is lifted from any of them.
It's not the second coming, but hot damn what a debut album Surfer Blood has served up.
Here's another track to check out... (You'll have to find the album yourself before next week.)
Fyi, the Spoon album is guaranteed to be on those lists. Listen to the stream for yourself.
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