Beach Day’s “Native Echoes” out August 19 on Kanine Records

Beach Day – the name’s more about attitude than genre. It’s about the ease and breeze of their modern wall of sound. Their tall, bright merge of garage rock, surf pop and girl group sounds is inspired by nostalgia but powered by fresh verve, sitting pretty alongside contemporaries like Cults, Tennis, La Luz, Those Darlins and Dum Dum Girls. And while their native Florida may be in a state of perma-vacation, Beach Day isn’t.

On Native Echoes, they’ve become greater than the sum of their throwback influences. After a year of touring in anticipation and support for their debut, Trip Trap Attack, Beach Day headed to Detroit – mecca for both garage rock and the girl group sound – and into the studio of Jim Diamond (the Sonics, the Dirtbombs, the White Stripes). Venturing far north in the dead of winter with nothing but their jean jackets resulted in all studio time and zero sunny distractions. Guided by the experienced hand of Jim Diamond, Beach Day dropped the bits of Northern Soul that appeared on their debut and replaced it with feedback, foot stomps, and an electric 12-string guitar run through an Allen Gyrophonic speaker to make it sound like a synth. And so,Native Echoes emerges packing more modern grit. Just listen to hot-revvers like “All My Friends Were Punks” and “I’m Just Messing Around.” With more instrumental sophistication and all-tape recording, the album features more atmosphere and patina to deepen its new octane.

However, Beach Day’s signature features remain, including Drake’s huge, young Ronnie Spector-ish voice. And though she assures there aren’t actually any love songs on the record, Beach Day’s romanticism is still, thankfully, in bloom (“BFFs,” “Don’t Call Me on the Phone”). It’s a record about friendships: the rebellious ones, the lost ones, and the ones that betray. It’s those friendships that are being romanticized on Native Echoes. And of course there’s still their famous Florida terroir as featured prominently in “Gnarly Waves” and “How Do You Sleep at Night,” whose ocean sounds were recorded in the middle of the night at Drake’s favorite hometown beach: Hollywood Beach. After dusting the Beach Day sound with some Detroit mystique, there’s just more under the hood this time. An analog sound with Beach Day’s hue? This could be classic.

Beach Day is: Kimmy Drake (vocals, guitar), Skyler Black (drums), with addition of a bassist for the live shows.