Made In America - NUDE BEACH, "77" (2014)

Brooklyn based Nude Beach have been churning out melodic 70's flavored power-pop since around 2008 when Chuck Betz, Ryan Naideau and Jim Shelton formed the band. After two full-length albums that skirted the line of angsty rock with hints of early Elvis Costello and the classic jangle-pop of Big Star, Nude Beach have gracefully matured into blue-collar classic rock territory that sure to evoke feelings of those past warm summer evenings with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers playing over your FM airwaves.

Nude Beach's third album 77, set for an October 21st release through Don Giovanni Records, will be a double-album that's sure to deliver you straight to the American heartland so grab a cooler full of beer and your best friends and light the bonfire, it's going to be a fun night.

Made In America - UNITED WATERS, "Sunburner" (2014)

As half of industrial experimental duo Mouthus, Brooklyn-based guitar destroyer Brian Sullivan has been crushing eardrums since the early 2000's. In 2011, Sullivan went solo as United Waters and released his debut record Your First Ever River via Arbitrary Signs. With Chris Shields and Patrick Cole rounding out the trio, United Waters have recently released their follow-up, Sunburner, through Bathetic Records.

As densely layered as Mouthus was to the industrial and experimental world United Waters seems at first to be the polar opposite. Lo-fi, subdued and distant, but hypnotizing in the same way Sullivan's music has been in the past, but this time the entrancement creeps up on you and you don't realize you're in it until you're in it. Listening, I'm instantly transported to a steamy New York summer night. Too hot to sleep, the city sounds muddled deep in the background which seem clamorous at first but as you keep listening soon become recognizable.

Made In America - The Babies

One of the best things about the do-it-yourself ethic of the independent music scene is the camaraderie that exists between musicans and their willingness to work with each other for the sake of making good music. Often this leads to great side-projects and sometimes these side-projects turn into full time bands. If not for this we would've never had bands like The Breeders or Sebadoh.

The Babies are one of these types of bands, a one time side-project turned full time band. The Babies originated at Brooklyn house party meeting between Vivian Girls guitarist Cassie Ramone and Kevin Morby, bassist for the indie-folk act Woods. Originally meant to be another creative outlet between Ramone and Morby, they would later add drummer Justin Sullivan from Bossy, release a handfull of 7" singles on various lables and then a demos E.P. for New Images Records in 2010. 2011 would find the band releasing their self-titled debut on Shrimper Records. 

Their lo-fi jangly guitar sound with call-and-respond vocals would become more refined the following year while working with Los Angeles based producer Rob Barbato (Darker My Love, The Fall, Cass McCombs) and would lead to thier most recent album Our House On The Hill, released last year on Woodsist Records.

Ramone and Morby share songwriting and vocal duties throughout the album and deftly dish out songs with swirling meloncholic peaks that leave you wonderfully dizzy at times. Our House On The Hill is indie-pop to the core but gets you there through folk and punk rock territory with scatterlings of organ, piano and saxaphone used nicely to fill in that sound.

Made In America - Shark?

At least a couple of times a week I’ll spend a few hours at night trolling the depths of the internet for new music. This both alleviates occasional boredom and feeds my obsession for ear candy. I like to think that I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what’s out there but in all reality I don’t, not even close, and more often than not, I’ll miss out on a band with some worthy tunes. One of those bands was Brooklyn, New York’s, Shark?

I caught Shark?, yep, pun intended, as one of the two openers for post-punk icons Mission Of Burma a couple of weeks ago at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the tail end of a small tour with a stop through Austin at South By Southwest on their way back home. I must admit that they didn’t get to me at first. Even now I wouldn’t be able to pick out the opening song from a playlist. I only remember that it was a somewhat mono-drone, fuzzy experience and I could even be wrong about that. It was probably as awesome as the rest of the set ended up being. 

Frontman Kevin Diamond knows how to write a song with a head-bobbing groove and a hook that will land the dourest of listeners. I know, the fishing puns, can’t stop, won’t stop. While inching my way towards the front of the stage I invisioned Shark? as a rock and roll love child between The Pixies and The Strokes who received the choicest DNA from both bands. 

 

But the song that did it for me and has been on constant repeat for the last two weeks is the song Shark?, from their 2012 album True Waste. The song was the set closer and it closed the deal for me. I immediately darted for the merch table and netted a copy of the album, on cassette no less. Thankfully there was a digital download card.

So enhance your life a little and check out “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, fall in love with this band like I did, and then listen to their latest single “California Grrls” from their upcoming album Savior on Old Flame Records, expected to be released sometime this summer.

Here's a link to Shark?s latest single "California Girls" via Soundcloud.
More Shark? music available for a listen on their Bandcamp page.