Beruit - The Rip Tide - 9/19-9/26  

The number of images and memories this band name can evoke is literally infinite. From the sun-soaked peninsula of the Mediterranean Sea and sister city to Los Angeles, Baghdad, Tripoli, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Mexico City, Istanbul, Marseille, Cairo, Athens (...and it goes on, but basically, a city that rolls with only the most happening places on this floating marble we call Earth), to dank and grimy beer-soaked basements alive with yells and the tip-toe of ping-pong balls, that sometimes delicately land in foam to extra yelling. I now present another cerebral linkage in the form of a sextet hailing from Santa Fe, USA.

Beirut is world-American pop music and The Rip Tide is a glorious collection of brass, drum and voice, woven together in ear-to-ear smiling harmony. Tracks dance with different subjects, but include a story of a childhood city, Santa Fe, to a more abstract track in East Harlem, which abandons all logic and begs you to understand that "sound is a color [you] know." 

Crank up your speakers, wherever you are and especially if you're playing 'rut, and listen to what Zach Condon and his gang have to say. You won't be able to stop.

-pM