(Indie Rock, New Wave) repeat repeat - Floral Canyon - 2017, MP3, 320 kbps

Mixing the sunny swoon of sixties pop with a dark swirl of Warholian garage rock, *repeat repeat create their own geography, dreaming up songs rooted in the spirit of both coasts. Based in Nashville, TN — where frontman Jared Corder, drummer Andy Herrin, and keys/singer Kristyn Corder kicked off the band's career with 2014's Bad Latitude — the three musicians look beyond the borders of their landlocked hometown and, instead, mix California surf culture and New York street smarts into the same tracklist. They're a blend of bloom, doom, and boom. They're Dick Dale's snot-nosed grandkids. They're *repeat repeat.
A self-described family business, *repeat repeat was co-founded by Jared Corder — a former punk-rock kid raised on the sounds of Bad Religion and Black Flag — and Herrin, a lover of '90s artists like Nada Surf and Gin Blossoms. The goal was simple: to make edgy, guitar-driven music that nodded to the classic sounds of Jared's California birthplace, complete with hazy harmonies and surf-inspired arrangements. The problem? The group needed a female harmony singer, and nobody seemed to fit the bill.
Things changed when the band's producer, Gregory Lattimer (Albert Hammond Jr.), suggested that Jared's wife, Kristyn, sing with the band. The fit was natural. Kristyn had grown up in California, listening to '60s legends like the Mamas and the Papas and The Everly Brothers. She quickly completed the band, sharing vocal duties with Jared and serving as the inspiration for much of Bad Latitude — a debut album largely written by Jared during the couple's engagement, filled with songs about love, life, and the promise of new partnerships — along the way.
*repeat repeat hit the road in support of Bad Latitude's release in the summer of 2014. They traveled from city to city, while Nashville's top-ranked radio station, WRLT Lightning 100, supported the band with plenty of airplay back home. Most importantly, the bandmates saw the country and gained new perspectives. When it came time to write a second record, those perspectives came into play, inspiring *repeat repeat to write songs not only about themselves, but about the characters orbiting around them.
Floral Canyon (their sophomore release) stretches the band's musical envelope, adding depth, drive, and darkness to the sun-baked, surf-tinged pop music that's always been their bedrock. Produced once again by Lattimer, the album tackles modern culture ("Plugged In"), rocky relationships ("Mostly"), religious ideologies ("Speaker Destroyer"), and all points in between. Gluing everything together is the band's melodic, musical attack: equal parts percussive thunder, trembling organ, synth pads, coed harmonies, and wide-ranging guitar parts.
The album's name is a sly salute to California's Laurel Canyon, whose rolling hills were home to some of America's best musicians during the '60s and '70s. The SoCal salute came in handy when *repeat repeat caught the attention of notable Silverlake-based label Dangerbird Records, who agreed to release Floral Canyon in the fall of 2017. *repeat repeat’s sound is bold, bi-coastal beach pop, at once coolly current and proudly vintage. It's sugar-coated music with a raw, real, rocky center. And, once again, it's unmistakably *repeat repeat. -Andrew Leahey