Ah, Arts & Leisure -- '60s girl group, power pop, garage pop, or dream pop? Why, yes, yes it is. This group is about hooks, harmony and a good beat. If you want to try to define it, be our guest. But my decision was to just enjoy this Sacramento band's music. After all, summer is for enjoyment not unduly taxing our remaining brain cells.
Arts & Leisure was formed by the core members of Baby Grand (whose most recent album we liked quite a bit). The new configuration adds a second female vocalist to the Baby Grand boy-girl vocal package, resulting in a fuller, more versatile sound. With a classic instrumentation of two guitars, bass, drums and keys the band is well equipped to delivery the goods. And the goods on Choose You Adventure are sweet, sun-kissed tunes perfect for the middle of the summer, and not a dud in the bunch. With touchstones such as The Dum Dum Girls, Veronica Falls, The Breeders and Best Coast any indie pop fan could be forgiven for just making this the go-to summer soundtrack. In fact, the toughest part about compiling this post was deciding which of the eleven tracks to highlight. Here are four gems, and the full package can be streamed at the Bandcamp link below.
Arts & Leisure are Gerri White (vocals/guitar), Becky Cale (vocals/bass/keys), Cory Vick (guitar/vocals), and Tim White (drums). Choose Your Adventure is out now on Test Pattern Records.
Soundcloud
Bandcamp
Test Pattern Records
No comments:
Post a Comment