{"id":887094,"date":"2026-01-22T20:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/in-praise-of-beach-slang-2015s-best-most-sincere-rock-band\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:26:14","slug":"in-praise-of-beach-slang-2015s-best-most-sincere-rock-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/in-praise-of-beach-slang-2015s-best-most-sincere-rock-band\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Beach Slang, 2015\u2019s Best, Most Sincere Rock Band"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you\u2019ve ever driven from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, I\u2019m sorry. For everybody else: The six-hour sojourn is composed mainly of depressed industrial towns, rust-colored grain fields, and Kwik Trips populated by hard-eyed individuals looking to numb the pain of daily existence with Big Gulp-size sodas and fistfuls of beef jerky. But that\u2019s not how it looks to James Alex. To him, this patch of freeway might as well be Thunder Road<\/a>, Fire\u2019s Highway<\/a>, or the street where Paul Westerberg wanted to meet before peeling out in \u201cI Will Dare.\u201d For Alex, this is the journey of his dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just cartwheeling through this tour. It\u2019s awesome,\u201d Alex tells me. I\u2019ve just reached him by phone at a roadside restaurant in Kenosha. It\u2019s early September, and Alex\u2019s band \u2014 a relentlessly upbeat punk-rock quartet from Philadelphia called Beach Slang \u2014 is in the midst of a short run of dates in support of Tommy Stinson, the bass player from the Replacements, one of Alex\u2019s all-time favorite bands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m flipping out,\u201d he says, in a tone that immediately conveys a person who is indeed flipping the fuck out. \u201cThrilled beyond explanation, right? It\u2019s like \u2014 it feels surreal, you know? In the best way something can feel surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s causing Alex to flip out at this very moment is his first trip to the Twin Cities, the Replacements\u2019s home base, where Beach Slang will wrap up this short run in a few days. Alex is already plotting a local tour of noteworthy sites \u2014 the Let It Be <\/em>house, scattered clubs where the \u2019Mats played, a set of train tracks where some publicity shots were staged. Later, I recommend checking out the CC Club, the dive bar in south Minneapolis that inspired \u201cHere Comes a Regular.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still absolutely a kid with, like, posters on his wall,\u201d Alex says of his rock and roll obsession. \u201cIt really is the only thing that I\u2019ve ever subscribed to. I\u2019m just all in. I assume in the same way if you\u2019re a history buff and you go to where some famous battle happened, you just know you\u2019re in this thing where you\u2019re meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s truly surreal lately for Alex is his unlikely success. Formed in the aftermath of Alex\u2019s previous band, Weston, breaking up for good in 2010, Beach Slang started out essentially as a hobby for its 41-year-old frontman. Touring for nearly 20 years with Weston failed to establish anything more than a small cult following, so Alex studied to be a visual artist and bashed out big-hearted rock songs in his spare time. Alex hadn\u2019t given up his rock dreams, but real life required that he compartmentalize them.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Beach Slang put out two seven-inches, Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken? <\/em>and Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street. <\/em>The reference points were hardly contemporary \u2014 Alex has said<\/a> that he aimed for a sweet spot between \u201cthe Replacements, Swervedriver, Jesus and Mary Chain, all that stuff that I grew up on that affected me.\u201d While recorded on a punk-rock budget, the EPs aspired to the wall-of-guitars production style of \u201990s alt-rock, a huge sound to match the grandiose, borderline corny sentiments of Alex\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

Thematically, Beach Slang slots next to bands like the Hold Steady and Japandroids, which were also formed by indie lifers who didn\u2019t find a wide audience until they were well past the age of 30. Like those bands, Beach Slang makes energetic, aspirational music for aging rock fans looking to reconcile their raucous record collections with the mundane responsibilities of adulthood. But while the Hold Steady and Japandroids grudgingly accept the passage of time \u2014 their songs position youth as a trial by fire that exists in life\u2019s rearview \u2014 Alex still very much relates to the perspective of a teenager.<\/p>\n

Take \u201cFilthy Luck,\u201d the leadoff track from Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken?, <\/em>where Alex refers to \u201ckids like us<\/em>\u201d over fat power chords and hyperactive drum beats. \u201cCarve your name soft across my lungs \/ I want to breathe you until I\u2019m numb,\u201d he sings, clinging to the present tense in spite of the lyric\u2019s youthful naivety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s still the person I am,\u201d Alex insists. \u201dWe\u2019ve heard it through the ages \u2014 age is a collection of numbers. But those clich\u00e9s, I really subscribe to that. We have these cultural expectations that you reach a certain age and you\u2019re supposed to get serious or your retirement savings is supposed to be more important than your dreams. I\u2019ve never subscribed to that, and I have the bank account to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beach Slang\u2019s debut LP is out this week. It\u2019s called The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, <\/em>and it doubles down on the preceding EPs, amping up the slickness of the guitars and the melodrama of the lyrics. Romanticized depictions of adolescence as a life-or-death battleground have been part of rock tradition from Phil Spector to Bruce Springsteen to Celebration Rock. <\/em>But Alex\u2019s specialty is writing screamingly emotive rock songs about what it feels like to listen to all of those other screamingly emotive rock songs. Can you blame him for also wanting to live inside<\/em> of those tunes?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook man, we can\u2019t all make a living playing guitars, right? I mean, I get that,\u201d Alex says, pushing the gas pedal on his mile-a-minute patter. \u201cBut it\u2019s like, cool, so come home from the job and then remember the things you do that feed the good parts of you, not just the paying the bills part of you. I\u2019m still jumping around on a stage like a drunk loon 60 to 70 percent of the year. You can do it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2666\u2666\u2666<\/p>\n

From the first time I heard The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, <\/em>I knew Beach Slang was my new favorite band. I was already a fan of the EPs and had written about them enthusiastically<\/a>. I also investigated Weston\u2019s back catalogue, so I was aware that Alex\u2019s aesthetic had been honed over the course of many years. (Sample Weston song titles: \u201cTeenage Love Affair,\u201d \u201cHeartbreak Sandwich,\u201d \u201cFeelings Stupit Feelings.\u201d) But The Things We Do <\/em>instantly felt like a culmination. Alex had precisely hit upon what he had been seeking since the early \u201990s \u2014 a mix of nostalgia and forward-looking optimism communicated via fearlessly shiny riffs and florid clich\u00e9s redeemed by the all-in conviction of a true believer. Suddenly, I realized I had been seeking the same thing. So have lots of people I know. Every single person to whom I have recommended Beach Slang has wound up loving this band. Alex has apparently cornered the market on guileless rock music.<\/p>\n

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us <\/em>abounds with potential pitfalls, moments when the spell could be broken by a lyric or musical flourish that\u2019s merely <\/em>corny rather than transcendently corny. I suppose Beach Slang will elicit groans from those who aren\u2019t on the band\u2019s wavelength no matter what. But for me, as the record progressed on my first listen, the sense of exhilaration grew, from the sweetly sighing backing vocals of \u201cBad Art & Weirdo Ideas\u201d to the intensely rasping chorus of \u201cRide the Wild Haze\u201d to the articulate feedback of \u201cDirty Lights.\u201d When I heard Alex sing, \u201cIf rock and roll is dangerous, how come I feel so safe in it?\u201d in \u201cI Break Guitars,\u201d I felt a lump in my throat. My god<\/em>, I thought. He\u2019s actually pulling this off.<\/em><\/p>\n