The Wild Moccasins, Microscopic Metronomes

I’m envious. Honestly, that’s what I am — I mean, how can I not be? With their eagerly-anticipated Microscopic Metronomes EP, The Wild Moccasins have distilled the essence of what it’s like to be young and wild and carefree, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make me feel real fucking old.

Not mad at the band for that, mind you; listening to The Wild Moccasins is like opening the door to a stuffy, overheated room and letting in a rush of cool breeze from the calm, clear springtime blue. It makes me yearn for my younger days, want to say “screw it” to life spent shuttling between the office and the car and just spend all day outside with my the family, enjoying the beautiful day. It’s like a wakeup call when you’re stuck halfway between sleep and waking, letting you know that the morning’s here and it’s time to get up with a smile on your face.

So, how do they do it? How do those crazy Wild Moccasins kids so effortlessly evoke in me feelings of long-gone youth and the need to go do something fun? Well, in the end it’s probably a lead-by-example kind of thing, really — throughout Microscopic Metronomes, the band itself sounds like it’s having a blast, just smiling cheerily along as they play some of the sweetest, most unaffected jangle-pop I’ve ever heard. They exude a kind of exuberant, unforced energy that you can’t help but smile along, from the opening “friends around a campfire at night” singalong (complete with crickets!) on “My Favorites Die” on through to the end of “Shiny Strings.”

Obviously, while it certainly helps, energy isn’t the whole ball of wax. It also helps that the Moccasins (Cody Swann on vocals & rhythm guitar, Zahira Gutierrez on keys, vocals, & percussion, Andrew Ortiz on drums, Nick Cody on bass, and Andrew Lee on lead guitar) write some fine, fine songs, balancing more layered, New Pornographers-style stuff (see “Shiny Strings” and “Fruit Tea”) with more minimal, breezy, jangly, flat-out indie-pop a la Boyracer, The Boo Radleys, or more recent cohorts Rilo Kiley (see, well, pretty much everything else).

Swann and Gutierrez trade lines back and forth like a mellower Mates of State, while bright, sparkling guitars and Cody’s amiable bass dance nimble circles around them. On “Spanish and Jazz,” the track I’d tend to call as the band’s “signature” song, the Moccasins swing and sway with just a hint of melancholy countriness, moseying along unconcernedly at a gentle pace, while “Fruit Tea” and “Mailman” turn things up a bit both in terms of tempo and volume, displaying a bit of a Brit-pop influence.

Throughout, the band is playful and friendly, with the nicely-synced yells in “Fruit Tea” and the silly, cute-as-hell little bit of faux-sleeping noise that makes up the entirety of “Zzzzzzz.” I think I’ve found my new perfect soundtrack for the next sunny day.