Strains of Summer: Avi Buffalo Ease Us Into Brighter Days

With the (unofficial) passing into summer this late May holiday weekend - Memorial Day in the US; the last in the line of a good run of public holidays for the UK - it's natural to start seeking the lackadaisical tunes that will mark the coming months in our memory, for better or for worse. 

Thanks to a combination of Last.FM's relentless recommendation march and the hard work of Sub Pop's free music folks, Avi Buffalo have popped up just in time to meet this requirement and keep me company in the traffic out of NYC this weekend (please be gone already....?). 

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Rife with youthful exuberance (the oldest band member is 21) and breezy indie-pop tunes that recall a more ramshackle Shins, perhaps with the  same loose feel of a Los Campesinos! jam, the band offer that desired mix of chilled sunny bliss and songs, like the endearing What's In It?, with identity but little pretension. 

MP3: Avi Buffalo - What's In It? (at Sub Pop Records)

Taken from the self-titled debut album, out now 

Coming from Long Beach, CA, they also have the credentials to lay claim to being kings of the summer surf. If the new album settles well as a whole and the upcoming tour with the wonderful Modest Mouse finds them the wider recognition they're due, there's little reason for Avi Buffalo not to be the band topping your 2010 summer soundtrack playlist. 

Safe travels everyone!