Kevin Bronson on December 3rd, 2012

1

The Ross Sea Party has gone and released a really solid indie-rock album, and in an era when good indie-rock seems to have the same cool quotient as driving through Chick-Fil-A in gas-guzzling Oldsmobile. That is, unless you’re a band doing the garage thing, or the retro thing, or the folk thing, or the soul-thing, or the whatev-wave thing. The L.A. quintet’s “Hotel Pool” doesn’t quite fit those; it’s rhythmically over-sized and expansively arranged rock with tasty guitars, some persistent glockenspiel and, owing to frontman Brady Erickson’s croon, a dose of romanticism. “Hotel Pool’s” excess of “whoa-oh-oh” choruses (truly a plague in indie circles these days) can be forgiven thanks to the album’s overall conciseness, and its explosive moments. “Hotel Pool,” produced by Jeff Halbert, came out in October.

||| Download: “Two Things” (via Bandcamp)

||| Previously: “Thunder”

||| Live: The Ross Sea Party plays Saturday night at the Bootleg Bar along with Y LUV, Zak Waters and Jane Bang.