Kansas City surf rockers/psych poppers Shy Boys ostensibly love two things over everything else: a blissful jangle and burying emotions. Their stellar self-titled debut from January of this year frequently blended the two into a melancholic, but masterful swirl. You could hear that lead singer Collin Rausch was aching in a track like "And I Am Nervous", though with the reverberating you weren't entirely sure what was causing the pain.
With grittier sounding guitars and constantly thumping drums, effortless new single "Life Is Peachy" doesn't make solving the complicated equation any easier. Somewhere in that joyous noise Rausch is heard faintly singing "out there wasting time." But it's not clear if it's the wasted day where you kick back on the beach and watch the hours tick away with a smile on your face and a beer in your hand; or the far more nefarious day where you half-panic when asking "where did the time go??" Having seen them live several times now in the Kansas City area, it's no less a mystery in person. Judging from the borderline "frantic" pace the band travels at on "Life Is Peachy" and Rausch's wordless cries at the end, the latter scenario seems more likely. Still there's no easy answer to the question and Shy Boys seem to want it that way. There’s looseness in Shy Boys’ playing, but careful construction in their songwriting. Collin Rausch, brother Kyle, and Konnor Ervin could be "wasting time" but they're not wasting talent.
(You can hear "Life Is Peachy" now on Stereogum and look for the single to drop on July 15 through High Dive Records.)
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