Just when it seemed the wave of beachy bands that swept over indie rock in the late 2000s had finally crashed, along came
Cayucas and their debut,
Bigfoot. While
Zach Yudin's deceptively innocent melodies and boyish vocals recall the likes of
the Drums and
Surfer Blood, his take on this sound is a little quirkier and more introspective; if those bands are frolicking in the sun and sand, then
Yudin is lying on a towel reading a good book. Indeed, he took a fairly scholarly approach to writing and crafting
Bigfoot's songs, culling samples from eclectic mid-20th century sources like
the Animals and
Harry Belafonte and piecing them together into collage-pop that was nostalgic for no time and place in particular, yet capable of evoking specific memories. With the help of producer
Richard Swift -- whose own music shares a similar, vaguely retro but not too dusty feel --
Yudin replaced those samples on
Bigfoot with original instrumentation that still has that vibe of rootless deja vu (and at times, his fondness for catchy juxtapositions of nostalgic sounds and modern situations suggests a more laid-back, West Coast
Vampire Weekend or a sunburned version of
the Shins). Some of
Bigfoot's previously released tracks remain standouts, particularly the calypso-meets-indie of "Cayucos," which
Yudin was working on back when the project was still called
Oregon Bike Trails; this homage to the kind of seaside resort town that comes alive for a few months and then exists as a memory for tourists is so evocative that it's easy to see why he changed his nom de musique to
Cayucas. Likewise, "East Coast Girl" is another thoughtful vignette of vacations, expectations, and how they play out. However,
Bigfoot has plenty of other charms over the course of its eight tracks: with its music box sweetness and old-school key changes, "A Summer Thing" could be
the Beach Boys' version of "Sloop John B" played backwards; "High School Lover" feels like an update on the songs that bands played in the middle of '60s beach movies, but when
Yudin tells a girl she should have been his back in high school, it shows that not all of
Cayucas' nostalgia is sweet. Cheery in the moment but with a lingering poignancy,
Bigfoot is a soundtrack to shared memories of summer, first love, and all the bittersweet things that can happen when those two meet. ~ Heather Phares
