Most of us prep for big events in our lives. Getting ready for vacation. Business meetings. First dates. In my little universe, prep time for Forecastle Music Festival entails many things, such as perusing the artist list, listening to a multitude of different artists, gleaning what I can from online interviews and videos. All this in hopes of finding “that sound” that qualifies as an intense listen. Where does this lead me you might ask? Well in this case to Beach Slang! Any regular concert goer has bands on their bucket list to see firsthand and many of us have bands that we have never heard of that blow us away on stage. And that’s what I see in Beach Slang. An intense sound that presents diversity to the listener. After taking in their second album A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, song one “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids” absolutely won me over with the punk rock guitar intro and lyrics “Play it loud, play it fast, play me something that will always last”. From this point forward, I was jettisoned into an auditory blend of punk, pop, alt rock, classic rock, helping me realize there’s something here for every audiophile.

Yet, what really struck me was the band’s diversity in musicianship. To put it bluntly, I was blown away by Beach Slang’s Mixtape Volume Two rendition of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s

“Sometimes Always”. It is an outstanding tribute to the 80’s English Alternative Rock Scene. There was a cosmic sense of being launched back into another decade and another scene that not only is nostalgic, but progressively current in today’s music scene.

James Alex and company bring us something hauntingly familiar, while also a sound that is refreshing and new.