Though ostensibly about an unreciprocated summer love – all heady, hot-tempered, and lost in a haze – Mike Coykendall‘s ‘In The Summertime’ makes sure that, even whilst lamenting at a distance, you’re having wicked fun doing it. Clocking in at only one minute fifty-three seconds, the track evokes the whirlwind nature of a carefree summer, all scuzzy, caterwauling guitars, frantic drum kicks, and lyrics that aren’t too averse to descending into feverish unintelligibility.
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Conjuring up – again, despite the heartache in Coykendall’s voice – images of family holidays to the beach, of fuzzy home videos, of paddling pools and slip’n’slides and running through sprinklers, Coykendall has crafted a sound that deftly treads the line between emotive, lovelorn croon and blissed-out, lazy-daze psych rock. This is no surprise either: Coykendall has been recording since the mid-80s, and his experience shows in the effortless tracing of what is, ultimately, a fairly paradoxical mixture of concern and complete devil-may-care. With Coykendall further honing his music via the addition of a ‘rig’ – comprised of oversized Kay electric guitar, tin can kick drum and an array of hi-hats – to his multi-instrumentalist repertoire, it is certain that upcoming LP Half Past, Present Pending will offer a fresh and pioneering approach to homegrown rock of any sort.
Words by Tom Grantham
@_cryangosling