The breezy jangle of Beach Fossils is back.
Because the Brooklyn indie rock band’s new album, “Somersault,” involved textural experiments with a string quartet, piano, harpsichord, flute, saxophone, flute and vibraphone, they’ve had to expand to a quintet (including a second keyboardist that plays trumpet) for a tour which includes an Oct. 27 show at Philadelphia’s First Unitarian Church.
Taking a break from loading up Beach Fossils’ gear at home in New York, singer and principal songwriter Dustin Payseur said that he and core bandmates Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson were still “feeling out how to get everything to fit together” between new songs such as “This Year” and “Saint Ivy,” and tracks from their previous albums, “Clash the Truth,” “What a Pleasure” and “Beach Fossils.”
The songs on “Somersault,” the band’s first release on Payseur’s new independent label, Bayonet Records – which he co-owns with wife Kate Garcia, were inspired by sources as different as Isaac Hayes, DJ Shadow and ’90s hip-hop.
“We collaborate as a team in a different way,” he said of running a business with his wife, and keeping it separate from their marital relationship. The label’s acts include Lionlimb, Red Sea and Frankie Cosmos.
Payseur said that getting Bayonet Records off the ground had much to do with why there was such a long gap between 2013’s “Clash the Truth” and the new music. “It’s like a huge learning experience for me,” he stated.
Another reason for the wait was Beach Fossils’ commitment to HBO’s short-lived, Martin Scorsese-directed series, “Vinyl,” on which they backed Mick Jagger’s son, James, as the fictitious proto-punk band The Nasty Bits. According to Payseur, the band wasn’t too upset that “Vinyl” got canceled. “Some of our friends, and people we know, didn’t even put it together that it was us,” he said. “It worked out with the timing of the (recording of the) record and we were going at our own pace.”
“I’ve heard it’s a cool spot,” Payseur said of First Unitarian Church. “The fans in Philly are always so fun and they’re always a high energy show.”
