Heavy Hawaii always has the best songs to start summer mixtapes. I made like 5 or 6 last summer, and I actually started each with Heavy Hawaii’s “Sucide Summer”. They also had this song “Sleeping Bag” that was on Bathetic’s incredible 2010 Summer Bummer Get Laid Get Wasted Mixtape that I’ve listened to every time I’ve taken a bath in the past 2 years. They pack the same spirit in their 2012 Art Fag release, “Super Bowl XXIX”. It’s kind of boring to compare anyone to Brian Wilson (simply because it’s usually false), but this Matt Bahamas kid is reaaaaalllly on his fucked up-acid-ed-out-agoraphobic-but-still-getting-all-the-girls game. The song starts out straight Count Chocula creepy, but persists with moaning, navel-gazing, crooning and pure heat exhaustion. This song is the equivalent to biking all day really stoned around town to end up at a really tight beach party where the sand has already cooled down. Mostly the biking part — sweaty and really, really sexy — I digress. It’s obviously really easy to make any sort of beachy song, especially with the resurgence of all of the surf-punk bands in the past 3 or 4 years. Bahamas takes the hard road, and it’s easy to appreciate it. Such a simple sounding track employs warbling voice layers, a really fun bass-line and lots of textures and elasticity. The last 10 seconds are the best — pots and pans clanging, the fade-out of tropical rhythm, and vocals that probably sound like voices in Brian Wilson’s head. — Alizon K.
