Holiday Shores

Suddenly and out of nowhere, a whole generation of young bands is looking towards the beach for inspiration. It’s a coast-to-coast phenomenon, from San Francisco’s Girls to New Jersey’s Real Estate to San Diego’s Wavves. But the subject doesn’t yield the air of innocent escape it once did. Dotted with drugs and misfits, it can actually be a sinister setting for the above bands. Sitting between these poles of warm nostalgia and tingling paranoia are Holiday Shores, a Florida outfit named for an idyllic street near the ocean. Led by Nathan Pemberton, the band has made its full-length debut with Columbus’d The Whim, a collection of nifty, somewhat retro guitar-pop gems. There are heavy helpings of reverb, vintage keys, and vocal harmonies, lending a wintry feel to Pemberton’s summer-pitched musings. Despite some fleeting earmarks, though, Holidays Shores don’t really sound like other bands. It’s as if Pemberton is too immersed in his own little world to take cues from anyone outside of it. With Evangelicals. All ages. DOUG WALLEN
Fri., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., 2009