Auckland band surfs psychedelic swells

Name: Ghost Wave

Where They’re From: Auckland, New Zealand

When They Started: 2010

Sounds Like: Jangle pop for brainy surfers

Most Similar: The Allah-Las, Surfer Blood, Tame Impala

From the same New Zealand city as The Naked and Famous comes a sound to haunt your summers and surf your dreams. Ghost Wave’s debuted in 2012 with a self-titled EP of cleverly constructed collegiate garage pop with a moody late-August undertow. You could throw songs like “Hippy” and “Sounds” on along with all your other background noise lo-fi summer jams, but if you tuned in at the right moment something would make them pop out. Sooner or later they’d end up demanding your full-attention.

Perhaps it’s because this Auckland trio’s songwriting sensibility is out of step with their fuzzed-out contemporaries. There’s a serious minded alt-rock melodicism underneath the surfy reverb and Flying Nun jangle. ”Gold,” sounds like Tom Petty and R.E.M. collaborating on a cover of some obscure early British-invasion B-side. “Mood Ring” is a flat-out dronerama that (in the best way) comes off like a pale shadow of Television. In a live setting, their warm, fuzzy demeanor can quickly give way to a muscular post-punk attack, hulking out with a dark edge of Joy Division.

Listening to the EP is like drag racing through your college radio station’s record library and this is only their opener. It’s fully-realized but varied enough to suggest that they have more ideas in waiting in the wings. We’ll learn more soon, as their full-length album is reportedly complete and is excited to meet everybody sometime in 2013. We’re excited too.