John's New Music Blog

I'm featuring a few bands today, the next one is Brooklyn's Vivian Girls, a surf pop trio consisting of Cassie Ramone on lead guitar and vocals, Katy "Kickball Katy" Goodman on bass and vocals and Fiona Campbell on the drums. The band formed back in 2007 and has released three studio albums and a handful of 7" singles and EP's since then. The first single from their upcoming new album, Share the Joy, is "I Heard You Say," a bouncing surf pop number that if you listen closely, you'll notice that it's a rather bitter breakup song. Some compare the band to Best Coast (here and here), but Vivian Girls have their own sound and keep with the lo-fi ethos of fuzzy pop played loud. Yes, Vivian Girls did lose their second drummer to Best Coast, but I think it shows that Vivian Girls has the sound that Best Coast was looking for, not the other way around. "I Heard You Say" is a much more polished single compared to their prior releases, but it shows a maturing sound and not an effort to try to copy the style and subsequent success of their friends. Take a listen, listen takers and judge for yourself.

Vivian Girls are currently on tour and will be at The Trocodero in Philadelphia on April 9th, supporting the Black Lips. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Share the Joy drops on April 1 at Polyvinyl Records and April 12th at Amazon. You can also order their previous albums at Amazon. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the new album when it's released.