Shortwave Party is like The Strokes, if The Strokes weren’t boring. A more apt comparison would be to The Smiths or The Walkmen; bands which have a palpably energetic sound to their sometimes heart breaking tunes.
Shortwave Party’s charming songs are grounded by frontman drummer Dolores J. Diaz’s forward driving dance beats. Meanwhile, guitarists Justin Finney and Brady Porche (what a name) jump back and forth from jittery indie riffs to an almost ‘wall of sound’ style, giving each song a fantastic depth. In addition, Michael Kuntzman’s clever bass lilts in and out of the song’s spotlight with a laid back but nevertheless wholly present tone. On top of this already smooth pie of sound, vocalist Shelby DuPerier (okay, now I know they’re making these names up) belts her heart out. Her voice conveys the grief felt by the overly self-conscious (once again, Morrissey and Leithauser come to mind), but doesn’t come off as pretentious sounding as this sentence. –Taylor Browne