The Hairs

The Hairs hail from Brooklyn, but their sound is pitch-perfect for early September in North Carolina. Wistful in the most irresistible way, the band’s songs breeze along on back beats and colorful solos that are covered in comfortable fuzz. It's a style that bursts with ready-made nostalgia, and it's no surprise: Members of dreamy New York pop act The Pains of Being Pure at Heart assist in the band's live execution. But The Hairs’ sound is almost entirely the result of frontman Kevin Alvir, who handles most of the work on the recordings.

Alvir’s songs are wonderfully accessible to anyone with a love for indie (or any other kind of) pop. Laid-back hooks and melodies point to peers like The Pains and The Beets but also backward to acts such as The Clean. The best pop sounds like it comes easy, and, perhaps even more than any of the aforementioned acts, Alvir’s songs seem like second nature. Riffs swell sweetly inside blown-out production in a way that builds anticipation, even though the way they unfold is obvious. Catchy lines come with relaxed insistence, landing perfectly between insecurity and arrogance. The Hairs have only released an EP and a 7”, with many songs overlapping between the two; still, there's enough sun-drenched feeling here to get lost for an entire summer.

“Life isn’t all holding hands and eating ice cream,” Alvir says in the Hairs' bio; it's exactly this spirit that makes his late-summer Hopscotch date so appropriate. He tackles problems with kid gloves (“Scabies Babies”) and lets passing remembrances stab him square in the heart (“Duh x 12”). At the end of the season, oppressed by swampy humidity, struggling to find solace in your last, quickly melting vanilla waffle cone, it's hard not to sweat the small stuff, wishing you could do it all again. At least you will have the chance to dance your ass off with The Hairs. —Jordan Lawrence