I can’t say enough good thing about Woods.  A new release, even if it is just a 7″ that will probably just end up on my small wall of 7″ only to be played on the rare occasion I end up sitting next to my record player listlessly flipping tiny records.  Yet, this 7″, in all it’s minuscule glory has me smiling ear-to-ear, popping bubbly and firing off Roman Candles inside.

I’ve stated my love for Woods many a times here on Sound on the Sound and I still claim that they’re live show was both surprising in its sheer power and absolutely breath-taking.  “I Was Gone” continues along the Woods’ path to subvert folk, rock and psych in to one smashed together bit of lo-fi creation.  It’s dark, guitar-forward and surprisingly aggressive and Jeremy Earls’ piercing voice, and the sparse echoes that reverberate behind him still electrify the ear.

Woods - I Was Gone

There was a spell of time, in the waning summer months of ‘09, that every band slithering its way about the internet was beach rock related.  Names like Holiday Shores, Best Coast, Ganglians, flooded the webs and beneath this deluge of something-like-surf-rock I floated to the bottom.

Now though, as the cold months continue to hold their icy reign, I find myself neck deep in the sandy tunes that came before.  Beach Fossils, a band I dismissed ages ago simply because I’d had too much of sunglasses and sand castles, popped in to my mail box a few days back and the sunny-tunes crisped my skin and lightened my hair. Outside, the cold wind rushes down the streets, but with “Daydream” on the box, the scent of tanning oil and sea salt feels just a little bit closer.

Beach Fossils - Daydream

I’m a bit baffled, as the case often is, by this new Ganglians album.  From what I’ve heard in the past, this band was dropping literally scuzz-soaked two or three minute diddies that usually involved droning noise and or screaming.  I loved this.

On Monster Head Room the band’s jettisoned a good bit of the scuzz, replacing it with a sense of harmony more akin to Beach Boys than Eat Skull.  And again, I love it, maybe even more so.  It’s perfect summer music for those days when you’ve spread your toast with pot butter and the worlds just a little yellow around the edges.

Ganglians - Lost Words

I’m a bit obsessed with Thee Oh Sees right now.  I’ve seen them twice, maybe three times, in the last month, purchased and listened to their new LP Help a record number of times, seen lead singer John Dwyer in his many guises all over this city, and all the while I’ve been digging my way through their fairly sizeable back catalog.

And then I stumbled across their new “Tidal Wave/Heart Streams” 7″ that just dropped on Woodsist (an incredible label at the moment) scooped that up and have allowed it to set up camp on my record player for the last four days.

I feel like a groupie, but without the awkward sex and free drugs.   So I feel like the worse kind of groupie.

Thee Oh Sees - Tidal Wave

Thee Oh Sees on Myspace

IIt’s a good day to be a fan of cruisy, pre-summer music, as New Jersey native Ducktails (some guy and then some other guy) have, after a terribly long wait, released a full length, self-titled album.  This is music for a day of Brazilian bathing suits at the beach, a nice laid back, semi-tropical adventure that’ll have your mind wandering towards hot hot sand and the dirty scent of sun tan lotion.

I imagine most who are listening to this will be clad in denim, knee-length cut-offs, but you know, that’s just the kind of music it is.  Now sit back in your broke-down lawn chair, icy cold Modelo in hand, and crank the boom box, it’s just about summertime.

Ducktails - Daily Vacation

Ducktails on Myspace