If anything, the boys behind Newcastle four-piece, Vacations, are fully aware that a LOT of people are saying they sound exactly like Mac DeMarco. I mean, I have no doubt that the band have taken influence from Mac – their instrumentation, songwriting, social media presence, enjoyment of memes and general ‘vibes’ reek of DeMarco. By the time you get to the vid for their latest single, ‘Relax’, you’ll probably even be like the person who commented “I love Mac Demarco cover bands“ (ha, fucking classic one mate. Have you heard of the sweet FB page, yeah the boys? You’ll love it). To be honest though, the deeper you go into the wormhole of lo-fi, guitar genres on Bandcamp, the more you’re going to hear music that is derivative of the playmakers like Mac, Real Estate, Beach Fossils, (old) Best Coast et al.
I’m not going to bother telling you much about this track, other than to say that there is more than enough here to differentiate itself (unless you can literally prove they stole from Mac. If so, I will definitely delete this post from the Internet). ‘Relax’ is a well-crafted, clean, jazz-y, lo-fi jam, that is a treat to listen to. If you can’t get past the influence, then you seriously need to rethink your affection for this genre. Go listen to some experimental neo-psychadelic fantasy ambient gravel.
Vacation’s, Vibes EP, is out now via the ripper Human Sounds Records.
(Note: Tom has not been paid by Vacations to write this post, he would be open to the idea though)