Rumspringa
Self-titled EP
Cantora

Rumspringa’s vibe can be defined as East of the Brite Spot Americana: sweet potato fries with pepperjack cheese, crispy on the outside, soft and orange in the middle. It takes 20 and a 1/2 minutes to get through all 6 tracks on their EP. On opener “Shake em Loose Tonight,” Joey Stevens and Itaru de la Vega invite you to hit up their back patio, “Brothers and sisters/Won’t you gather around/Don’t need no tickets/We’re all from the same town,” for a little Devendra meets Black Keys bluesy after-hours—less folky than the former, not as punk as the latter. On “Goldmine,” Stevens’ vocals twist a tempered yarn around his cat-walkin’ guitar licks, as Vega’s lilting shuffle on the drums hits the spot that connects your shoulders to your belly-button and inspires a gentle rocking motion. The chorus (“Ah, Sativa, I feed you g-g-g-olden touch…”) could almost get crunk if Lil Jon poured it into his platinum chalice. The third “member” of Rumpspringa, the little-lupe memory pedal, allows the boys to traverse a range of layers and to really swing a strong rhythmic groove. Stevens harnesses his inner Tom Waits chi on “Skulls ‘n Phones,” with Vega’s “dow, da dow, da dow, da” takin’ it to the river for a romp in the leaves. Best if consumed after 2 AM.

— Daiana Feuer