Beach Day Never Ends, It Echoes

While summer is almost a wrap for most people, Beach Day is just getting started. Their newest album, Native Echoes, doubles down on the ins, outs, and influences of girl bands in the sixties.

As a band that is more about the attitude than the genre, expect some heady attention to the detail. Sure, they were much more about fun than form when the band debuted last year. But this time out, Kimmy Drake (guitars, vocals) and Skyler Black (drums) are in a different place. This is much more than the recasting of The Black Rabbits. It's Beach Day.

Native Echoes is bottled up fun. Uncork it whenever.

Mostly, the Florida-based trio sounds re-energized. After a year of touring and stepping inside the studio with Jim Diamond (Sonics, Dirtbombs, The White Stripes), Beach Day was ready to reach beyond the confines of nostalgia and knock out ten revisionist tracks that fire up this decade too.

Even with the absence of former bassist Natalie Smallish, who left the band after the release concert of their debut, Beach Day has never sounded better. In some ways, it solidified the commitment of Drake and Black to play on and go out. It creeps in often on Native Echoes as passionate desperation.

Where you won't hear it is on Don't Call Me On The Pone. The video, which premiered in July, eases into the album much like their album last year with a lyrical twist that chastises a likely boyfriend for being predictable at best and boring at worst.


While Don't Call Me On The Phone is pretty standard fare for the band, most of the other tracks showcase something more. This is an album about friendships — those lost, found, and bruised beyond repair.

All My Friends Were Punks takes on the theme in the broadest sense, with Drake taking on a dense and reminiscent bent with her vocals and on the guitar. Think of it as a toast to those lost teenage years. She does the punk scene proud, despite the overindulgent hand claps.

Where the album truly picks up is later on in the track listings. After the lackadaisical BFFs track, Beach Day gets down to business with I'm Just Messin' Around. The tempo change couldn't come soon enough, even if it plays to pedestrian sensibilities. It's about driving around and doing stuff.

The bottom half of the album is even better. Pretty picks up the thumps better than I'm Just Messin' Around. It sounds like it should be played loud in a cruising convertible despite never mentioning words like car or ride or anything else. One might even be inspired to stand up and put their arms out (seat belt laws not withstanding).

All their swirling buzz numbers follow. The Lucky One, Fades Away, and Lost Girl are the best tracks on the album. Collectively, these three dial down the notion that Beach Day is only about the fun. Drake and Black can be contemplative too, even if they seldom get specific about it.

Sure, some people are going to focus on the fact that Beach Day still doesn't push themselves enough. Maybe. But there are some subtleties on the album to appreciate, like running a 12-string guitar through an Allen Gyrophonic speaker to make it sound like a synth. Does it matter? Yes and no but mostly yes.

Native Echoes By Beach Day Blows Out 7.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Native Echoes is another stepping stone for the duo that tours with a guest bassist. So give the band a little more time as it matures into something even better. And in the meantime? Run through the track list and dig into their standouts. There are several, especially on the back half.

You can pick up Native Echoes by Beach Day from Amazon. The album is also available for download from iTunes and Barnes & Noble carries the vinyl edition of Native Echoes. For something more, especially tour information, visit them on Facebook.

Beach Day Likes Walks, Boys, Shoes

Not everyone will like Beach Day, but Kanine Records started sneaking out singles for the band back in December anyway. They've released three of them now, just enough to make a 5-track EP.

It's hard to say if they will or won't. The 60s centered girl-fronted fuzzed up pop rock band has been called Best Coast on crack. It was meant as compliment, but it's also a nod to the fact that the band is too fresh to take seriously. They don't take themselves seriously.

Beach Day is a diversion and that makes it fun. 

Just to be clear, there is no comparison to Best Coast. Beach Day isn't even this band's main gig. Maybe it will be one day, but right now all three members also play in the Asheville, North Carolina-based The Black Rabbits.

More exactly, they are The Black Rabbits with a different sound, different first names, and no frontman. The question some people have to ask is if The Black Rabbits can survive. These borrowed beach garage pop grooves might be more addictive than the source they sprang from two years ago.

Claiming Hollywood, Florida, as their new hometown, the trio isn't especially great. The music isn't especially fresh. It's not something anyone could play day in and day out. But it's precisely these reasons why everything clicks. Sometimes life just doesn't need to be so fucking serious.

That pretty much sums up their latest standalone single, Boys. Clocking in at a clipped two minutes, Boys reaches for a lovesick sweet sixteenie who breaks it off with her boyfriend and goes boy crazy. The single is also slated for their upcoming LP, Trip Track Attack.


While it's unclear if some of their other singles will grace the album, it's impossible to talk about Beach Day without adding these various tracks. The very first cuts I heard last December were Walking On The Streets and its B-side, Little Red Shoes.

The single is a straightforward slow pop number. The song is all right for something that reminds me of of a roughed up Ronettes number, but mostly it proves that Beach Day's head elf Kimmy Drake can really sing. Little Red Shoes is the better number. The B-side track has more rock and less pop.

Because Kanine Records released the second single — Beach Day with the accompanying Get It Out Of Your Head — I didn't hear it until after Boys landed in my inbox. While it might sound impossibly familiar to anyone who lives closer to the real Hollywood, Beach Day is still sonic-pop perfect for any summer day with surf, sand, whatever.


Much like the first single, Get It Out Of Your Head might be the better track. The B-side sleeper is well composed, significantly smoother and fuller than any of the others. And it's almost knowing that will make people wonder just what the band intends to do on the album.

The fact is that the trio frequently puts down live shows and puts up videos that aren't nearly as polished as their studio work. The fuzzed out and dirty cuts, sometimes dropping vocals or other elements out entirely, doesn't sound nearly as good as when they play their music effortlessly and straight. In fact, it's when they try too hard that they run into trouble and fall dangerously close to becoming a parody of themselves and others.

Beach Day Finds All Boys At 7.3 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

After the review, some people might wonder why I scored them higher than most people would anticipate. It's easy enough to explain. I want Beach Day to succeed because they could make a lot of fun music without being overtly presumptuous like some alternative bands. At the same time, I freely admit that I don't always like how much I like the band.

You can pick up Boys from Beach on iTunes, along with their other singles: Beach Day and Walking On The Streets. Beach Day is currently on tour and sharing some updates on Tumblr. You can also follow the band on their Facebook page.