Speedy Ortiz EP Release Show With Grass Is Green, Young Adults, Arvid Noe | O'Brien's | 30 May

We'll tolerate the coronation of certain music as "summer jams," but we generally find the practice a bit distasteful because it misses the point: such a jam is inherently awesome, summer has nothing to do with it. Unless this is your song. Or this. Or this. But our ultimately pointless preface aside, we think it is very safe to wager that the indieground will be rocking steadfastly to Speedy Ortiz's brilliant EP Sports during these next hot months. Sports, due June 5 and available for pre-order on 10" vinyl, limited-edition tapes or digitally via Bandcamp right now, is being feted with a release show tomorrow night featuring one of those epic Boston bills that have become increasingly more common in recent months. Speedy Ortiz, a quartet operating out of Northampton led by Sadie Dupuis (formerly of Quilty) that we first wrote about here in March, will be joined by devastating smartpunkers Young Adults, progressive indie luminaries Grass Is Green and the beautifully spazzed Arvid Noe, whose recent radio set for Pipeline! blew us away. So, totally sick bill, right? Here's the Facebook event dealy, join the movement.

So what about that EP then? We can report it is rife with well-composed, more-than-a-little angular guitar anthems ("Angular motherfucker! ANG! U! LAR!") supporting Ms. Dupuis' affecting alto. Those Polvo and Helium references you may have encountered are earned, but Speedy Ortiz's vibrant edge, the product of a propulsive rhythm section, unexpected guitar lines and refined dynamics, keeps the band from sounding nostalgia-bent. The verse of opener "Basketball" somehow slinks and skitters at the same time, before dense, driving verses clear a path for some pretty vocal harmonies and subtle handclaps. "Indoor Soccer" has a creeping rhythm that backs listeners into a corner before pummeling them in the chorus. "Silver Spring," which is available for free download and to stream via the embed below, is the most overtly melodic and anthemic cut of the batch, but it still flouts convention by eschewing chords in the verse in favor of the band's characteristic guitar slither. Sports is being released by Exploding In Sound Records; the EP was recorded in Philadelphia at Sex Dungeon Studios and mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato in Northampton. Speedy Ortiz play the Heirloom Arts Theater in Danbury, CT June 1 and Shea Stadium in Brooklyn June 2.