L.A. Unheard: Neverever's beach-bound indie-pop
The band: Neverever, an L.A. group led by indie-pop power-couple Jihae and Wallace Meek.
The sound: Like La Sera, Best Coast and some half-dozen SoCal garage-pop revivalists before them, Neverever offers a noisy, tuneful take on the girl-group era. But don’t lump the band in with the Pacific idolaters: tracks such as “Wedding Day” and “Bunker Spreckles” offer spiky riffs and sharp songwriting to balance the soft-focus nostalgia. Indeed, the latter track finds singer Jihae Meek taking clever aim at the darker history of that East Coast ocean: “Bleached hair and beachwear didn’t do for long,” she sings, moments after rhyming “fur coat” and “U-boat.” Elsewhere, the ba-ba-bas of "Mexicoco" bounce subversively around the tale of a sour summer romance.
The random: The band’s humor comes with twee cred: Jihae and husband-guitarist Wallace met in art school in Glasgow, Scotland, home of the seminally salty Belle & Sebastian.
The details: The “Shake-a-Baby” EP, hipster puppy cover and all, was released Jan. 17. It’s the follow-up to the band’s 2010 debut album, “Angelic Swells.” The band joins Veronica Falls and Bleached on Saturday at the Bootleg Bar.
The music: Download “Wedding Day” below.
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-- David Greenwald
Photo: L.A. indie-pop quartet Neverever. Credit: Kim Zuniga
