Viking's Choice: Drag Sounds, 'Messy Life'

Summer is almost here and you need summer jams. There are always competitors for the title "songs of summer," but when you're sitting on a porch or hanging by a pool, there's no room for competition; you just want a steady string of tunes. Drag Sounds' debut Sudden Comfort is a chooglin', hip-shakin' rock 'n' roll record that's indebted to the swagger of The Velvet Underground and the winding guitar interplay of Television. Recorded in Baltimore (with members based there and in North Carolina), the songs are short and messy like a mop of unwashed hair, but also bright and breezy.

"Messy Life" isn't about anything in particular — maybe just living the moment. The guitars loosely braid bouncy riffs against cooed oh-oh's and whoo-whoo's as the drummer barrels into his kit. It's the sound of an endless summer, buoyed by the key phrase, "Let's have a beer, and be here!"

Sudden Comfort comes out July 1 on Aloe Music. Drag Sounds goes on tour in June.