Artist Young The Giant

With its soaring melodies, crashing percussion, and waves and waves of reverb, it’d be easy to dismiss Young The Giant as another group of immaculately tousled, 21st-Century Californians, making its own multi-culti beach jams à la The Morning Benders and Local Natives. Yet the band has a secret weapon in lead singer Sameer Gadhia, whose impassioned vocals give a shot of restlessness to the band’s seemingly easy, breezy sound. That agitation is all over tracks like “My Body” and “Cough Syrup”—both from the band’s self-titled 2011 LP—where Gadhia’s voice cuts like a shark’s fin through the band’s otherwise calm, blue waters. The band recently recorded an MTV “Unplugged” session, which aired this past November.

Updated 02/10/2012