Jeremy Stone, head of social media at BBC Radio, on Tennis Club's Vodkas.
Wilson Hernandez wrote Vodkas at a spa where “everyone was drinking mimosas and painting trees.” Tennis Club’s guitarist nipped to the loo and captured its nagging Sesame Street melody on his phone there and then. You’ll be glad he did, because this really is the lo-fi anthem of the summer. Well, my summer at least.
Young trio Tennis Club are based a good 1,500 miles away from a beach, in the landlocked tornado town of Joplin, Missouri, yet there are deliberate surf garage echoes here, with handclaps and tambourines very high in the mix. Frankly, at the moment we could all do with some tambourines high in the mix.
I’ve followed Spanish label Elefant for ages. They recently celebrated an impressive 30th anniversary of digging up indie-pop gems like this and I can proudly announce that the 95 seconds of Vodkas has joined the 84 seconds of Velocity Girl and 82 seconds of Wreckin Bar on my celebrated 1:20 shelf of sha-na-na harmony winners!
And there’s more to come: watch out for Tennis Club’s no-messing 17-minute album full of Dick Dale twang, cut-price Wilson bros harmonies and tales of beer, dating and break-ups.
