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