Warning: Indie kids can be peppy too. They can sing about sunshine and have fun on a California beach. And, though it seems like a contradiction, they can produce some old-fashioned, fun-loving pop. The New Fidelity's album, Tiny Slivers, is perfect example of this.

Perhaps inspired by their SoCal upbringing, the New Fidelity channels '60s surf rockers like the Beach Boys and the Surfaris in order to revive the early British-Invasion feel. Songs like "2nd Once in a Lifetime Girl" and "Hole In the Day" find lead singer Dan Perkins screeching a la Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock to high-tempo, mod-fueled harmonies. However, this similarity to Brock seems to be the only modern influence present on Tiny Slivers.

What made other trail-blazers of this sound (namely Rooney, whose 2002 hit "Blueside", with a matching music video set on an Orange County beach that crowned them the kings of neo-mod) so successful was their willingness to incorporate the old with the new: rejuvenating mod and not simply reviving it. The New Fidelity struggles to find the balance between mop-top and hipster rock.

It seems they are more than mere fans of beach rock. They're almost castaways, stuck on the beach with no outside influences. Though there are few buried treasures (pun incredibly intended), including the album's title track "Tiny Slivers" (which seems to be the only song fit for the twenty-first century), but the album doesn't seem to stand out as entirely listenable or modern. They most likely could provide a soundtrack for an aerial view of sunny Los Angeles on a show like "The Hills" or "90210" but nothing more. Their indie pep is very much welcome but it grows old quickly-older than those who were around to groove to the original "surf-rock" back in the day.

-Maggie Owens