Neon Indian – ‘Deadbeat Summer’

Guest post by Jodi Smith

You know how it is; you’re driving home after a full-on day, the traffic is heavy, and if you’re like me you’ve probably already spilled two soy lattes on your white shirt. Since the caffeine hasn’t gone down your throat nor has it been absorbed through the skin on your chest, you’re in deficit and desperate. You flick between radio stations… Triple J is so desperately un-funny you almost wish you could fall asleep at the wheel, the monotone drawl of FBi with the repetitive ‘ah’s and ‘eh’s and loud breathing into the microphone is a lullaby more acoustically harmful than those your Russian grandmother sang to you when you were three. But at least this time you’re in control- you dare to flick the dial in the hope of a golden oldie to sing along to, but alas, infomercials once more.

And so, almost lost, you flick one more back to FBi, and a new, sweet, unrecognisable tune fills your ears. It engulfs your car and begs you to take the long-route home, or perhaps drive around the block once more, just so you can appreciate the melodic goodness.

This scene may be repeated daily for those of you with a 9-5 (not me, haha suckers), but the musical gift is a chance occurrence. I rarely get excited by new tunes these days, and so it was much to my delight that when cruising back to the ‘burbs last week, this pleasant scene unfolded and I was the un-caffeinated protagonist.
Whole, circular sounds emanated from my sub-par car speaker system. I felt like I had been wrapped up in bubble-wrap, and every time I moved there was a perfect, satisfying ‘pop’. I bobbed my head, bhangra style, perplexing surrounding drivers. Yet what I didn’t realise then was the appropriateness of my moves, for the band was named Neon Indian, and besides, since I was driving it was pretty impossible for me to pull out a culturally appropriate Jai-ho or belly roll.

At once, I was awake, and determined to track down this new sound, the first impressive electro-pop since Hot Chip (classic), Passion Pit (current) and MGMT (dated). Frantically I steered along the freeway, writing the lyrics as I recalled them into my phone, in the hope of locating the song online later. Despite my reputation for car-accidents (go figure why), this was my first real-time achievement of the day, as the song ‘Deadbeat Summer’ returned an album by the name of Psychic Chasms. It was to be full of psychedelic electro-pop and songs that transport you to a colourful wonderland, all without acid! Again the band references this with a track entitled ‘Should’ve taken acid with you’; perhaps with songs as uplifting as these, it was the comedown that inspired the album name. 3 minute highs might not be enough; thankfully the album totals about 30 minutes.

The band name itself might conjure images of Delhi lights, but these beats are clean and controlled. The track ‘Deadbeat Summer’ almost seems to have a 60’s Beach Boys influence, modernised for a noughties summer vibe. The four piece Neon Indian hail from Austin, Texas, and ‘Deadbeat Summer’ is actually from their third album. Although they have been around since early ‘08, they have been sucked into musical cyberspace after posting their most recent work online. Watch out for these guys, they’re going to prove through their beats and popularity that everything truly is bigger in Texas.

Neon Indian – ‘Deadbeat Summer’

Take your own Neon Indian ‘road trip’ here.

On a somewhat related note, FBi is using the cover image ‘FBI Does Drugs’ this week to help promote a new safe/sensible drugs initiative, Betweenthelines. We’ll be counting down our Top 5 Drug songs for these guys in the coming weeks – stay tuned.