Avid Dancer

1st Bath (Grand Jury)

Secret formula for winning the indie-pop wars? How about cloistering in a strict religious household during childhood before joining the Marines and becoming a drumline champion? Jacob Summers now records as Avid Dancer and proves mostly true in delivering the breezy, fuzz-toned goods on his LP debut. If not for the semi-detached vocalizing that places its pedigree in the medicated 21st century, “All the Other Girls” wouldn’t feel out of place between the Psychedelic Furs and Haircut 100. The intertwined Soweto guitar and silky sax in the coda prove tantalizing. Likewise, the mid-tempo pulse of “I Want to See You Dance” evokes icy-hot New Wave abandon. “All Your Words Are Gone” falls within drink-sloshing distance of festival pastiche, but Summers manages to hold epic-striving in check. Earnest and forthright even in its lesser moments, 1st Bath unspools like the soundtrack of a lost pocket romance script. (Fri., 8:55pm, Parish)

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This article appears in March 20 • 2015.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.