rake me over a line of coals, throw me into the sea

This weekend was pushing 80° all along Colorado’s Front Range, and I enjoyed the bejesus out of every single one of them.

Saturday night I was at my favorite vinyl-loving buddy’s house for the first BBQ party of springtime, and Andrew pulled out a Floating Action record from 2009 and laid it carefully on the record player, lowering the needle onto some specific sort of fantasticness from those audaciously raw opening drumbeats:

50 Lashes – Floating Action

Sure I’m a few years behind the curve on this one, but it’s never too late to have happy ears. Floating Action is mostly one guy, Seth Kauffman of North Carolina, creating music that he describes as “a southern band that longs for the West Coast.” I think Andrew described it as reggae for indie kids, and I loved the squonk and quirk and groove – kinda like the winning warble of Okkervil River’s Will Sheff fronting a soulful dusty band somewhere on an island.

Floating Action is part of the Park the Van Records family (also the home of Dr. Dog, Generationals, Spinto Band) — and speaking of Dr. Dog, here is a wonderful video of a song project commenced for the Shaking Through Series, showing Seth working with Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog as curator and producer of a song in two days, “Dead Reckoning.” Read more about their creative process and get that song on the Shaking Through site, for free.

For the months to come, I recommend their 2009 self-titled record, and the new one that’s out now called Desert Etiquette.

As a wonderful bonus, here’s Floating Action on Daytrotter covering my favorite Rilo Kiley song ever, complete with triangle flourishes at the correct moments.

Silver Lining (Rilo Kiley cover) – Floating Action

Get three free other songs from Floating Action over here, and a whole live EP here. And turn it up for springtime.