Paper Days - Fun for Family & Friends EP

Pitchfork 69

Paper Days is a four-piece outfit from San Diego with an unadorned "California sound" in an era when the sound of Southern California has become increasingly hard to define. Brothers Niko and Xander Sitaras, Jordan Graham, and Nathan Blake were previously-known as "the band who opened for Mac DeMarco at the show where he was arrested at in Santa Barbara," and now they’ve released a debut EP: Fun for Family & Friends, an ode to the exact kind of synergy with an audience for which that show is remembered.

This isn’t to say that Paper Days are reckless, or that their music is unhinged. Their EP was recorded without overdubs in an homage to the live-show experience; this is a group that wants to sound like they’re in the room with you, playing at a house party the likes of which Paper Days have channelled into something of a mini-cult following in SoCal (thus the name of their EP: Fun for Family & Friends). The overarching sound here is wave-washed rock from a bass-, drums-, and two-guitar configuration. "Kind Guidance" and "Sweet Destiny," the band’s two lead singles, are beach-friendly and melodic, but percussive and turbulent in their messiest moments thanks to Graham’s forceful timekeeping and the synergy between Blake and the Sitaras bros’ kaleidoscopic guitar tones (Xander Sitaras plays bass).

There’s an atmospheric feel in Paper Days’ music, and singer Niko Sitaras uses this context as a means of both poetic conveyance and care-free musing. "I had to be a believer to know when I was wrong," he croons on "Kind Guidance," before rejoining, more explicitly: "You had your back/ Against the wall for me, baby." There’s a slickness to lyrics like this that feels more social than angsty; "Boy"—which is inspired by Caitlyn Jenner—is a reflection on gender stereotypes that still manages to sound fun-loving despite the embedded provocations in the lyrics ("For a boy to be a man/ He’s gotta learn it with his hands"). Here, Sitaras' vocals, which were written collectively by the band, seem to mirror the binaries of the music itself; at points his voice is vigorous and gruff, yet during the bridge ("It’s alright to be okay/ (Are you?)")—it soars up in the register to a high falsetto that is the sonic equivalent of a gentle caress.

The entire EP is loose and layered, with several elements that occasionally feel too cluttered to cohere (cc: "Lightning Cola")—but then again, some of the cuts here, like the title track, are single, raw takes meant to emulate that "living room" feel that often defines small-town bands. Lyrically speaking, Paper Days’ EP could benefit from a stronger narrative arc—something to make each song, with each of their frenetic sonic elements, feel like pieces of a larger puzzle (rather than mini-narratives unto themselves). Paper Days have a personality that asks to be teased out with a more resonant point of view. Instead of being part of Mac DeMarco’s story, he could be part of theirs.