A B & The Sea. The up-and-coming quintet with the deceptively spelled name hails from both San Francisco and Winneconne, Wisconsin. I’d watch these guys if I were you; they’ve got their shit together. With their beachy California vibes, 60s-retro theme and clean-cut vocal harmonies, A B & The Sea come off as some professional motherfuckers (uh…“exude a tidy professionalism beyond their years”). They’ve even got their own font for chrissakes.
Currently they’re unsigned, but I can’t see them staying under the radar much longer. They’ve already shared stages with the likes of The Morning Benders, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and the Submarines. Surely it can’t be long until some greedy-fisted corporate label-type discovers them, signs them, twists their music until it’s unrecognizable and then milks those cash cow udderz for all he’s got. Hmph. Until then, we should enjoy their uncontaminated musical stylings.
Everything, from the lyrics to the mixing to the album covers, has this really cool vintage aesthetic. While A B & The Sea certainly has their own style, much of their music draws heavily on the clean sound and lyrical simplicity of early-60s pop-rock groups. In other words they’ve definitely got their swag down.
These guys are absolute masters of backing vocal parts. Just listen to the first few seconds of “Down and Around” to see why they’re constantly compared to the Beach Boys. Those are some complex Brian Wilson-esque vocal harmonies indeed. Let me tell you, those take a while to compose. Just thinking about trying to reproduce them live makes me dizzy and nauseous.
Frontman Koley O’Brien seems to have signed a pact with the devil, giving him a supreme understanding of how to write incredible hooks. Seriously man, what the fuck. It appears he did this in exchange for having to wear turtlenecks at all times. Not really sure what that’s about. But in any case, he takes full advantage of this remarkable ability—writing tunes that are essentially a continuing series of hooks. They’re old style, stuck-in-your-head, compulsively-need-to-whistle-them pop songs. Just listen to the chorus on “Yellow Haired Girl” and you’ll know what I’m talkin about. Masterfully done.
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