Surf City - EP

Album Review

New Zealand's Surf City aren't doing anything stunningly original on their debut EP, but they are laying some good groundwork for where to go next with their enthusiastic blend of styles and sounds — if anything, they are a classic product of their home country, taking rock & roll inspiration from all over the place and happily transforming it into something that could have only come from their neck of the woods. Perhaps the closest point of comparison on that front would be the 3-D's, but that's due less to specific similarities and more to the sheer energy and ragged happy sound of songs like "Headin' Inside," which starts the release with scraggled surf guitar and then a big singalong rave-up, and the similarly great "Dickshakers Union" and the slower, majestic "Mt. Kill." Keyboards spiral and squeal, vocals get a classic heavily echoed touch that makes the whole thing sound all the more live, and the whole is just a delight. If they put their own stamp all the more thoroughly on their next release they'll be off and running.