The world is full of generous souls. Don’t believe me, you societal pessimist, you? Maybe you’ll believe Atta Boy and the story behind their one and only full-length album Out of Sorts. Over the summer of 2012, the young Californian band was yearning to evolve from their status as a glorified high school talent show spotlight. The recent graduates were struggling to deliver their unrecorded content to the world, and with limited finances at their disposal, they were running out of feasible options to keep their band alive. Their empty pockets forced them to turn to the only place left for monetary support: their local fan base. Crowd-funding can be risky business, but the success of Atta Boy’s subsequent Kickstarter campaign was a bit of bite-sized altruism. The budding dreamers raised almost $7,500 in a mere 2 months, thus successfully funding the engineering, production, pressing, and marketing of what eventually became Out of Sorts.

Out of Sorts’ millions of ensuing content streams was no accident. Atta Boy captured the hearts of worldwide indie lovers by playing into the genuine enchantment of collectively passionate adolescent minds. Their simplistic, charming alternative sound mirrors the slow progressive style of bands like The Head And The Heart or Dr. Dog, while lead singer Eden Brolin resembles a less twangy but equally winsome version of First Aid Kit‘s Söderberg sisters. The only fatal hole in Atta Boy’s act is cruel, youthful durability (or lack thereof). Any group whose provenance begins during their fragile teenage years runs the risk of growing up and moving on to a life of stability, and that unfortunately that seems to be the case with Atta Boy. Consequently, Out of Sorts remains a lone diamond in the rough, likely to remain celebrated within small free-spirited beatnik circles as this high school band’s brilliant, unfinished blueprint of a career for the rest of their acknowledged existence.

Favorite Tracks: Out Of Sorts, Walden Pond, Jack and Blow, Saccharine, When We’re Alone