Boronia [Blue Vinyl] Hockey Dad Artist

Amiable fuzz-pop duo {|Hockey Dad|} emerged in 2014, laying claim to summer's easy vibes with the five-song EP {|Dreamin'|}. A little bit cheerful, a little bit slacker, {|Dreamin'|} was filled with pleasantly rambunctious jams like Babes, Lull City,... Read more

Amiable fuzz-pop duo {|Hockey Dad|} emerged in 2014, laying claim to summer's easy vibes with the five-song EP {|Dreamin'|}. A little bit cheerful, a little bit slacker, {|Dreamin'|} was filled with pleasantly rambunctious jams like Babes, Lull City, and I Need a Woman, the latter of which also finds a home here on {|Boronia|}, their debut LP for Brooklyn indie {|Kanine Records|}. {|Hockey Dad|} (a somewhat obscure reference to a Simpsons episode) is the partnership of lifelong friends {|Zach Stephenson|} (guitar) and {|Billy Fleming|} (drums) who hail from the coastal Australian town of Windang in New South Wales. Surfers, skaters, and eventually rockers, the two pals began jamming garage-style in their early teens, forging a carefree sound based around their beach town lifestyle. Boronia is the name of the street they grew up on and if the album bearing that same name isn't a particularly ambitious platter, it is certainly fun and ultimately relatable. Sporting a slightly more robust sound than on their EP, {|Boronia|} is high on rowdy beach-punk fuzz, rhythmic thump, and some tuneful songwriting. Though many of album's songs are populated with bass and a handful of subtle overdubs, {|Hockey Dad|} are, at their core, a stripped-down guitar-and-drums duo with {|Stephenson|}'s rusty tenor providing the strong melodic hooks. There are a few standouts strewn throughout like Jump the Gun, So Tired, and Laura, but mostly it's the kind of long-player that works best blaring in its entirety from the speakers of a sun-roasted beach cruiser dashboard on the way to someplace fun. ~ Timothy Monger Less