The Coast

"Killing Off Our Friends," by the Coast, fromExpatriate (Aporia Records):

When it comes to skinny, handsomely disheveled Canadian indie-boy guitar bands, there are far worse places to go than the Coast, which nails its homeland sound. The opening track off the Toronto band's debut, Expatriate, sounds like a sonic pillow fight between Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire — choppily strummed clean-tone electrics rattling against walls of vintage keyboards and cheery gang choruses. The album settles down after that, maintaining a BSS-like love for falsetto vocal hooks but employing a more sparse, urban atmosphere that recalls moody countrymen the Stills. Last in the line of Canuck influences: the Tragically Hip, from whom the Coast surely learned to turn a guitar chord into a lonesome, bay-filling echo. If any of these bands are unfamiliar to ya, maybe it's time to brush up on that coast up north, hoser.