Band Marino: The Sea & The Beast

Orlando’s Band Marino has a good thing going. With the release of The Sea & the Beast, they’ve served up a slab of infectious and sunny folk pop that’s one more confident stride towards redeeming a Central Floridian music scene that, until recently, was almost exclusively dominated by atrocious hardcore and speed-punk acts. Keeping step with a bevy of young, bright-eyed (not to mention high-voiced) indie popsters (Vampire Weekend, Illinois) Band Marino’s debut is a vibrant mix of shanties drawing on Pixies and The Pogues for inspiration. For a debut, the songwriting is also pretty well varied (a good rocker to ballad ratio, if you will). The obvious hit, despite an awkward title, is “Everytime I Make a Girl Cry I Know I’ve Done My Job”, boasting the big choral kiss-off, “I won’t marry you / there’s too much to do.” Other highlights include the sublime, countrified “Chasing Rainbows” and the melancholic “Song for a Melody”.