Beach Slang

Originating from the creative drive of vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist James Alex, Beach Slang along with its acoustic counterpart Quiet Slang generates emotionally turbulent indie rock shaped by the compositional approach of Paul Westerberg. Launched in 2013, the endeavor produced two EPs and two full-length albums as a quartet before Alex delivered his debut Quiet Slang recording, supported by alternate musicians, in 2017.

Assembled in Philadelphia under Alex together with guitarist Ruben Gallego, bassist Ed McNulty, and drummer J.P. Flexner, the group issued its initial pair of EPs in 2014: Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken? through Dead Broke Rekerds and Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street via Tiny Engines. Early the next year the band signed to Polyvinyl, enabling the October arrival of its cathartic debut album The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us. Capitalizing on the record’s positive reception, Beach Slang swiftly tracked its follow-up LP A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, which appeared in September 2016. When touring began for that release, Flexner exited, and several guest drummers rotated through the position.

In 2017 Alex issued an EP under the Quiet Slang name that paired two of the band’s songs with covers of the Replacements and Big Star. Titled We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, the set was scored for voice, piano, and cello. The subsequent year he released a full-length collection of Beach Slang material under the same moniker. Like the EP, Everything Matters But No One Is Listening substituted piano and strings for the electric guitars of the original songs.