Balearic as Fuck

So the sun is out. People are shedding layers of clothing and skin as music seems to keep pace with genres being shedded and metamorphizing into new rebirths. Not to be one of those dudes that lumps thing into groups and declare some sort of overarching humanistic movement, but this is the way we get the blog hits, I guess, so here I go.

Indie rock seems like all about dead. Chillwave is splitting and self-replicating into sub-stems of even more hilarious monikers: Witch House, Chill House, Beach Glitch, Sun Pop. Some of these will come, some of them will go. There is no doubt, however, we all like to feel something when we hear music, and lately that vibe has been mostly, well, good.

This post is basically an excuse for me to post about one of my favorite bands this year, whom I consider an important precursor to a lot of stuff that is coming out now and is very, very good and very, very under-appreciated. That band is the Tough Alliance, and they look a little something like this and sound a little something like this:


Tough Alliance- Hung Up on a Dream (Zombies Cover)

And then here is some other great stuff:







So yeah, they're basically like the Beach Boys meet the dudes from the movie "Funny Games" meets Swedish production. They fall into what some are calling the "New Balearic" movement. Not to be too reductionist, and this genre can probably mean a lot of things, but to me it means electro-tropical with a retro sentimentality. Kinda like the beats from Gloria Estefan's "Conga" slowed down a bit with people singing sort of nostalgically over it.

So what else is following suit? Groups like Delorean, Aeroplane, and Tanlines riff heavily on this kind of stuff, but I feel like the best is yet to come. Get ready for more posts on this and enjoy the fucking weather when the sun is shining down.