“Lake Michigan“
from the album Asleep at Heaven’s Gate
2007
iTunes
Like “California Dreamin'” and possibly everything the Beach Boys have recorded, Rogue Wave’s “Lake Michigan” has the unique ability to sound exactly like summer. To-and-fro guitar melodies and echoing bass lines with a happy, handclapped beat create nothing but joy and fervor — as the band’s multiple members by way of Oakland, California (one of which, drummer Pat Spurgeon is the recipient of a new kidney) sing over top another like swimming schools of fish.
The orchestral arrangement of swirling synthesizers and disjointed noise effects feel like the patches of sunlight between the tune’s murky depths, recalling the electric acoustics of Neil Finn, Ivy and subdued aspects of the Shins‘ “Phantom Limb.” “Get off my stack,” the band repeats in tripled harmonies as whirling wultizers and overcast guitars reverberate in classic indie rock formation. With a reeling, sophisticated musical effort this sublime, there’s no way anyone would dare try to cop it. Rogue Wave’s Asleep at Heaven’s Gate arrives Sept. 18 via Jack Johnson‘s Brushfire Records.