Summer Cats

Summer is the perfect season for pure, catchy indie pop, and while it's just turning to winter for Australia's Summer Cats, Slumberland is excited to ring in North America's warmest months with their debut full-length, Songs for Tuesdays! Building on their single releases, including 7"s on Cloudberry, Slumberland and Knock Yr. Socks Off, two 3" CDRs on Cloudberry and WeePOP! and their Scratching Post EP on Popboomerang, Summer Cats' debut album is all set to deliver on the promise of their already impressive discography, not to mention the 3 1/2-star review they garnered from indie bible Pitchfork, after only their second live performance.

Summer Cats play upbeat pop songs in a Stereolab-meets-Go-Betweens style, replete with distorted keyboards, feedback guitars and hook-laden basslines and all accompanied by Scott Stevens' distinctive vocals. They are best played loud, in your bedroom, while your parents are out. The Melbourne five-piece not only know how to write addictive pop songs with just a hint of '60s garage edge--catchy numbers like "Super" and "Lonely Planet"--they also know their indie pop history. Nowhere is this more evident than on stand-out mid-album tracks like the boy-girl duet "In June", which could easily be the best Velocity Girl or Earthmen song of 2009, and the jangle-pop of "Wild Rice", which recalls the folky early-'90s Rhode Island indie scene of Slumberland faves Small Factory and Honeybunch. This side of Songs for Tuesdays brings back the feeling of the our classic collaboration with another Australian indie powerhouse, Summershine Records, the Just a Taste compilation.

None of which, of course, is to suggest that Summer Cats are looking backwards. They have already shared sides of wax with similar modern day pop groups like Eux Autres and labelmates The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and are set to keep the momentum going with the upbeat, danceable 33 minutes of fun that is Songs for Tuesdays.