Picture yourself three months ago, when you were perched upon your lawn chair at the beach and staring glossy eyed into the eternal blue of the ocean and sky. The warm sun beating down on you like a reassuring blanket, and nothing but you, a six pack, and the vast beach landscape were going to take this day down. Now listen to this:

The Brooklyn band Beach Fossils uses heavy reverb, lo-fi sound to its advantage. While some groups might use it to give their band the raw garage rock sound (i.e: Dinosaur Jr, The Melvins), Beach Fossils use it to make their music sound dreamy and melodic with their (for lack of a more modern term) groovy guitar rifts and sweet, sinuous vocals.

The band, which started as Dustin Payseur’s solo project, released its first full length self-titled album in May 2010 and has received decent reviews– for the most part. The album has eleven songs and features songs like “Daydream” “Youth” and “Twelve Roses”. The album sounds like a mix of something between The Beach Boys, Joy Division or maybe even The Smiths. Yet, at the same time, that description doesn’t do the album justice due to the originality of the songs themselves. The album takes you back to the days of the summer fling, those girls who stay in your life for only a second but leave you dreaming for years. The song “Daydream” is simply about daydreaming about a girl. A juvenile topic, yet, with Payseur’s smooth voice and harmonious guitar rifts, the childishness of the subject matter becomes something carefree.

As Brooklyn’s musical laboratory concocts more and more interesting musical brews, this new take on lo-fi from Beach Fossils is a great example of the quality of music coming from the Brooklyn scene. Beach Fossils is an alright band; their music is the kind you listen to while you’re getting blackout drunk at the beach, mellowing out sitting in the sun, or just chilling in your living room. It’s that brand of indie music which isn’t meant to be danced or moved to in any way shape or form, but is meant to wrap around you like a warm blanket, and is just nice to listen to (although, to me it’s simply music for the sleepy bum waiting for the day to end).