Holiday Shores is a truly exciting band from Tallahassee,FL that is damned hard to pin down. They thrive on making truly beautiful and melodic songs, often piling on the noise and shifting the tempo just to keep things interesting and tightening the grasp on your attention. These tactics and songs often erupt into delirious shoutalongs and irresistible rhythms that leave you happily helpless in their hold.

Take, for example, their version of the Arthur Russell tune, “Your Motion Says”. These guys take a line like, “I’m just another guy. Your motion says you’re in the mood, but what you want is far away.” They lay the groundwork with a jaunty keyboard line and sharp drumming that calls to mind the sunshine of Vampire Weekend’s most infectious tunes. They broaden the sonic palette further with guitars reminiscent of the post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot work Nels Cline has done with Wilco over the past several years. All of this unhinged playing, the waltz rhythm upfront, the buoyant keys solo and the dazzling guitar solo, makes impressive noise, but it’s bandleader Nathan Pemberton’s full-blooded singing out of aching heart lyrics and exultant “Oooh”s that make the performance truly special. When everything is pieced together, Holiday Shores have given us an irresistible refashioning of a recently unearthed lost staple.

“Injun” starts with a sweeping, elegant guitar line that draws you in and allows the band to unleash a thunderous rhythm and let the song ignite as a bona fide stomper. Prepare yourself for the riotous freakout at about the 3:15 mark and the ensuing tempo change. Like many Holiday Shores songs, it retains the core theme of the foundation previously laid, but it also becomes something more delicious, wholly unpredictable and rousing. This is a band that feels comfortable rescuing an aching heart by sheer will of triumphant attitude. Holiday Shores makes music that is winning the war against depression rather than taking the well-trodden route of feeding the melancholy. They play artful rock with dancefloor shoes; indie rock with a passport chocked full of stamps and nothing to stifle them in one comfortable place.

This band is the engine to an attractive, but not exactly sexy, sportscar with deceptive ingenuity on the turns and a thirst for wide-open, windblown joyrides. “Threepeat Got Old” proves just this with its feral jungle rhythm and the angular worldly guitar sound, not unlike the one The Clash unearthed and struck gold with to a newly expansive audience back in the days of Combat Rock. The guys take sneaky curves with precise tempo changes and have a knack for constructing bridges of quiet vocals and restraint that leave you uncertain, but truly excited, for what is to follow. Soon enough, often sooner than you see coming, Holiday Shores erupt into the massive chorus with triumphant shouts I defy you to deny. It’s refreshing to listen to such a tight, smart band sing out as often as Holiday Shores do. It’s a recipe that will reward many on first listen, but will be a surefire addiction on repeat listens. Take it from them: sprinkle some sugar, sneak in a dose of vitamins, maybe guide it down with a beer or tasty cocktail and sing out to the heavens.

Holiday Shores’ new album, New Masses for Squaw Peak, is due out September 13 courtesy of 2 Syllable Records.

Recorded and Mixed by Jeff DuPont
Filmed and Edited by Doug Fellegy
Written by Justin Wesley

MP3 Downloads
Holiday Shores - Threepeat Got Old
Holiday Shores - Injun
Holiday Shores - Your Motion Says