Last year, a Seattle three-piece known as Seapony entered the blogosphere at the pinnacle of a now cherished medium known as Bandcamp, with only a handful of singles (which they offered for free). These four songs provided attention for the band’s music – simplistic, slightly distorted surf pop – and would go on to be the foundation for the band’s full length debut, Go With Me, via Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art. The breezy, jangling rock tunes located here could easily garner comparisons to Best Coast due to their corresponding guitar pop mannerisms, uncomplicated drum patterns, and summer night arousal. It’s in the lyrics, however, sung by vocalist Jen Weidl and contributed by songwriter Danny Rowlands, where Seapony branches away, as they are certainly less redundant and don’t even begin to address the marijuana happiness, or relationship-abandoned woes of Bethany Cosentino.
On Go With Me, Seapony succeed in chilling you out, whilst getting you slightly amped, all at once. The music is dreamy (which can be accredited to Weidl’s passive, barely audible vocals), and intoxicatingly lo-fi, with a certain bedroom pop complexion. In an interview with Magic Monster Radio, Rowlands had stated that the band’s premise was to keep it simple, ergo, no added instrumentation, no psychedelic special effects. Rather, Seapony perpetuate straight up guitar rock, harmonic melodies, killer bass riffs, and reflective vocals. Go With Me is equal parts rock and pop. On opener “Dreaming”, the chords are obtrusive, the noise-pop is noticeable, and yet it’s difficult not to sway along to and attempt to sing along with Weidl. Songs like “I Really Do” and “Where We Go” implement the pertinent shoegaze genre as much as surfy pop appeal, the former sounding like a more composed, less erratic Vivian Girls.
It’s true that Go With Me can sound a bit mundane, the same guitar chords appearing again and again, the songs transitioning into one another so smoothly it’s hard to decipher where one begins and another ends. But the cuts here are catchy and definitely fun, easy to listen to, and, though not mind-boggling or likely to receive as much attention as Cosentino, they represent a band that is equally as talented. Regardless, Go With Me is assuredly worth more than a few listens. The fact that this collection of sun-bathed rock tunes have arrived just in time for summer makes it all the better.
