Surf Club premiere the artful craft of fainting spells with their new single “Swoon” from Death Party Records. As part of the label's Nothing to Lose split single series, Vol. 1 pairs up Stockton's DIY dream weavers Frankie Soto, Jose Medina, Alfonso Robles and Marcos Gonzalez of Surf Club and Oakland's Manatee featuring the guitar talent of Black Tambourine/Whorl/Slumberland Records operator Mike Schulman. With the Stockton quartet's “Swoon” hitting the heart of the love sick and the daydream world of indie pop hopefuls; the Manatee B-sides “Theme (Dugong Sing-Along)” along with the dash and thrash cover of Big Boys' “Which Way To Go” buttresses the independent alternative fortresses of tomorrow with future promises for all of today's living and loving mammals.
Keeping the mood celestial and passion earnest, Surf Club's follow up to their recent single “Heaven” presents the epitome of falling mind over heels all over again with “Swoon”. Frankie Soto spells out heart felt sentiments in passionate sonic terms and a lyrical honesty that can convince the coldest cynic of love's existence. “I still close my eyes, every single time, when we say goodbye so I don't have to watch you, watch you walk away, because I always think, that it would be the last time”. That moment's blink encapsulates an affair to last a lifetime as much as it is on the brink of farewell where the absence stirs a memory like intimate home movies played on repeat in the DVD player of the mind. “I still see you there, playing with your hair, even though you're gone, trying not to talk, trying not to lose you”.
While the guitars fuse into the crispest keyboard pop hook, Surf Club combines the initial rush of infatuation in close time to the hit of potential-break-up obsessions; two polarities that are rarely acknowledged and indulged in this type of musical manner as even existing on the same axis. And like the chorus suggests, the course of romance, constant threats of break-ups, collapse and conflict only continue to stir uncontrollable feelings as connections are held onto that cannot be hidden nor masked. “And it always seems to grow when the worst is already known, and I always let it show and I can't let go, I just can't let go”. With every guitar strum like the mind's eye image of a lover brushing the hair from her eyes; Surf Club stirs evocations of the long lasting aftershocks from unrequited departures and the endless dreams of marrying together what might be tragically irreconcilable.
On the 7″ flip-side, the mysterioso Manatee busts out the instrumental “Theme (Dugong Sing-Along)” amped by VOX amps half buried and grounded in the sandy beach dunes. Taking on Texas skate punkers Big Boys, Manatee amps up the distortion with their cover of “Which Way To Go” that knocks out the poppy foundation from beneath the original's pop punk construction. Flipping up the A-side's quandaries of cupid arrow struck wounds, the Bay Area group thrashes out the relationship frustration gripes with a DIY aggression ready to be matched to homemade skate or surf videos or set to mash up the stage of any seedy dive. “What can I do or say, to let you know the state I'm in and just what will that prove, how can you ever understand, I'm sitting in the sun, waiting for the rain to come, looking into the dawn and wishing that this day was done”. From the dead pan deliveries, chorus chants, and aggressive board blistering rendering; the cover provides a counter mood to “Swoon” as both songs seek and celebrate the many sides, complications and paradoxes we all share with only those we cherish the most.
Surf Club's 7″ split with Manatee will be available April 16 on arctic white vinyl with pre-order available here from Death Party Records.
