Kevin Bronson on September 25th, 2014

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Forty-eight years ago, in the early days of media firestorms, John Lennon caused a stir by wisecracking the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, sacrilege in that era. On the title track to the Growlers’ new album “Chinese Fountain,” Brooks Nielsen advances the notion that “The Internet is bigger than Jesus and John Lennon / and nobody wanted to know where we’re headed.” There could hardly be a truer couplet sung. [Ed. Note: He wrote, on a blog.] In an age medium has trumped message – and in music, aesthetic seems have trumped both – the Growlers have fashioned a sharp album of topical (not tropical) rock that we only hope everybody is not too stoned get their minds around. Written in three weeks and recorded in half that time, “Chinese Fountain,” which came out this week via Everloving, style-hops wildly from surf-pop to post-punk to twangy rock. And while much has been made of what the Growlers do – “Beach Goth,” they call it, but that’s a smokescreen – it’s best on this Growlers album, their fifth and by far most accomplished, to just sift through reverb and listen.

||| Stream: “Chinese Fountain” and “Good Advice”

||| Live: The Growlers host the third annual Beach Goth festival on Oct. 25 at the Observatory in Orange County, with three stages of music featuring the Drums, Mariachi El Bronx, DIIV, Joyce Manor, GZA, MØ, Foxygen, the Sweet & Tender Hooligans, Atlas Sound, Alice Glass of Crystal Castles, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Chelsea Wolfe, Bleached, the Garden, Cherry Glazerr, Tijuana Panthers, Com Truise and more.

||| Also: Check out “Dull Boy” below:

Photo by Taylor Bonin