{"id":5541,"date":"2017-02-23T13:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T18:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=5541"},"modified":"2017-03-17T14:16:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T18:16:53","slug":"surfer-blood-snowdonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/surfer-blood-snowdonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Surfer Blood
Snowdonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Surfer<\/a>In their relatively short existence, Floridian band Surfer Blood have had quite the wild ride. After their self-produced debut record, Astro Coast<\/i>, they were signed to Sire\/Warner Bros. for their follow-up, Pythons<\/i>, with legendary Pixies producer Gil Norton behind the boards. Two years later, though, they were back in the indie world with another self-produced album, 1000 Palms<\/i>. To invoke the cliche, the only constant has been change. However, the band\u2019s latest record, Snowdonia<\/i> (Joyful Noise) marks perhaps the biggest change as it\u2019s the first release since the death of founding guitarist Thomas Fekete and the departure of founding bassist Kevin Williams.<\/p>\n

As such, the band featured on Snowdonia<\/i> is nearly a new creation, with singer John Pitts and drummer Tyler Schwarz recruiting Lindsey Mills on bass and formalizing the membership of guitarist Mike McCleary, who filled in for Fekete when he was unable to tour. An added wrinkle is that now Pitts is the sole songwriter, which means he has to, whether consciously or not, push in a new direction while still keeping elements of the old Surfer Blood. When you compare the previous three albums, however, there\u2019s enough variation that the band wouldn\u2019t necessarily have to be bound to one sound. It also helps that Pitts is once again handling the production duties.<\/p>\n

The result is a record that plays both sides of the fence by bringing in elements of the past with an eye towards the future. One of the notable new elements on Snowdonia<\/i> is the smart utilization of Mills\u2019 backing vocals, which give the songs more depth sonically. Surfer Blood also challenge themselves with funky time signatures and some epically long songs, the almost five minutes long \u201cSix Flags In F of G\u201d and the near eight-minute title track. What remains unchanged is the presence of tight pop hooks. While the title and artwork might suggest an icier approach, the hooks are still pure Florida sunshine. Far removed from the band\u2019s noisy, ramshackle garage days, the songs invoke XTC and \u201860s pop.<\/p>\n

Lyrically, Pitts doesn\u2019t shy away from the darkness of the past few years, which also included his mother\u2019s cancer diagnosis. However, the arrangements and tone tend to keep the darkness in check. Pitts has never been one for Springsteen-style directness, so some of the details have to be teased out. For example, on the surface \u201cTaking Care Of Eddy\u201d could just be read as a frothy, up-tempo pop jam until you realize that it\u2019s literally about taking care of someone who\u2019s incapable of caring for themselves. Similarly, it takes a minute to realize \u201cCarrier Pigeon\u201d is a song both for and about his mother.<\/p>\n

Snowdonia<\/i> isn\u2019t necessarily a \u201creturn to form,\u201d but the band certainly sounds rejuvenated. With only eight songs, there\u2019s no messing around, and even on the longer cuts you can hear the band pushing themselves in ways they haven\u2019t before. By not playing it safe this version of the band could win back old fans and convert some new ones at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their relatively short existence, Floridian band Surfer Blood have had quite the wild ride. After their self-produced debut record, Astro Coast<\/i>, they were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,1292,1257],"class_list":["post-5541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-joyful-noise","tag-surfer-blood"],"yoast_head":"\nSurfer Blood Snowdonia - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/surfer-blood-snowdonia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surfer Blood Snowdonia - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In their relatively short existence, Floridian band Surfer Blood have had quite the wild ride. After their self-produced debut record, Astro Coast, they were\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/surfer-blood-snowdonia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-23T18:20:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-17T18:16:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Surfer_Blood-Snowdonia.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/surfer-blood-snowdonia\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/surfer-blood-snowdonia\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dorian S. 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