This Is Our Jam: Telekinesis, “Coast of Carolina

I find it weird that sounding ‘new’ or ‘relevant’ is so important in indie rock, especially when other exuberant and vital music scenes quite literally wear their influences for everyone to see (punk and metal's whole history can be read in an audience's pins and patches). Portland power-pop revivalists Telekinesis may not actually wear denim adorned with Teenage Fanclub logos, but in songs like “Coast of Carolina,” they have no qualms with showing off what they love either. “Coast of Carolina” moves from Elliot Smith-indebted singer-songwriter wistfulness to righteous Blue Album bombast, while packing in Pacific Northwest harmonies. The result is a song that achieves at exactly what it is going for, without being afraid to show where it is coming from.