Review: The Thing About Rivals - Sabrina

So once in a while when I'm bored I go to bandcamp, put in random tags and click on album covers that catch my eye.  To be honest, it's almost always a total waste of time.  But...BUT... once in a while I stumble onto a total gem that makes it all worthwhile.  Yesterday I found one of those gems. 

The Thing About Rivals hail from Los Angeles, and according to their bandcamp page they play beach indie-rock summer surf music - that's pretty much all I know about them.  Serendipity (and the "newness" sort option) led me to their Sabrina EP on the very day it was released and it was love on first listen.

The title cut "Sabrina" starts with a strummed acoustic guitar and folky harmonies before a tremolo-y guitar line enters, painting an unmistakably sunny picture.  "Oh Well" picks up the pace, with a steady backbeat providing a base for cascading lead guitar and a repeated chorus of "Oh well / I don't like it any more than you do".  Lush and vaguely shoegazey but still maintaining a sunny disposition.  "Concrete Waves", the most upbeat of the 4 songs, as clean guitar arpeggios and frenetic drum fills create a bed for Emir Abdo's slurry croon.  Replace a bit of The Walkmen's dreary east coast grit with some west coast hazy sunshine and you should have a pretty good idea what The Thing About Rivals sound like - and that's most true of the closing track "Water Stone".  Gently-picked electric guitar, organ and a woozy vocals build to an epic, bombastic climax of drums, guitar and vocals that recedes as quickly as it swelled.

One of the best unexpected discoveries I've had in a long time.  I guarantee this will be getting lots of spins over the coming weeks and months.  If you're not sold, you can get the entire EP for FREE at the band's bandcamp page!  No excuse not to get this now.

The Thing About Rivals - Water Stone

Bonus: video for "Tangering Dream", outtake from Sabrina