The Soft Pack

The Soft Pack

Kemado Records

After being drowned in flack for their controversial name, the band formerly known as the Muslims finally gave up and got a makeover. Under new alias, the Soft Pack are debuting their first full-length as the only San Diego natives to play at Coachella — not too shabby for Torrey Pines High School alums who used to deliver pizza in Del Mar.

The self-titled album mimics three-minute classics popular in the ’60s, concise taste-testers of the band’s stylized garage-punk. Trading in overtly thrashy power chords for eye-roll melodies, the Pack give an aggressive nod to surf and punk-rock with enough angst to kill a small animal.

First single “C’mon” is a speedy strum-and-bass rush, Matt Lamkin pumping monotone don’t-give-a-fuck vocals (“Don’t have a look/ Don’t have the name/ Don’t have the walk/ Don’t want to talk”) to challenge the cuddly new band name.

“More or Less” shows off their SoCal surf-rock influence while criticizing the La Jolla lifestyle of the rich and selfish, complete with Beach Boy vocals and a stoney instrumental jam to end the song.

Dangerously similar to their beach-fried genre predecessors, the Soft Pack isn’t pushing any limits here. But they also avoid cloning their peers with low-fi blare, and remind us why we love unpolished garage crap. Their tardy entrance doesn’t condemn them outdated or unoriginal — rather, a fresh take on the well-studied, well-worn music we call surf-punk.