34th & Now

I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of West Palm Beach, Florida’s surf inspired indie-rock quintet Surfer Blood when I first heard their debut single, “Swim,” way back in the closing days of 2009. There was just something about lead singer John Paul Pitt’s vocals that I couldn’t get into. But, being one to give a debut three or four listens before I’m ready to write off the band, when their debut album, Astro Coast, came out in January of this year, I gave Surfer Blood a second chance.

As it turns out, Surfer Blood is one of those bands that just grows on you more and more with each repeat listen. Tonally they lie heavily towards the indie-rock end of the spectrum, though other influences flicker throughout like surf-rock on “Floating Vibes,“  and African-pop—a la Vampire Weekend—on “Take it Easy.” With nearly a year of listening to the album—Pitchfork called it “lo-fi clangor, glo-fi harmonies, punchy retro-garage concision, never-out-of-style classic rock song-craft”—I can say that despite my initial opinion, Surfer Blood turned out to be one of the better debut bands of the year.