Sauna

Your first band in high school probably sucked. SAUNA, still somehow stuck in that teenage hell, doesn’t — in fact, in less than a year as a band, the adolescent quartet has already paid a visit to the recording studio, played dozens of shows, and is in the midst of planning its first tour. Sonically, the Colorado-bred go-go punks have captured the simplicity of Beat Happening, the rebellious nature of Black Lips, and the primal scream of The Raincoats to create a rowdy vibe all their own.

Singer Molly Bartlett has the Kim Gordon coo down pat, shaking SAUNA’s vocals out with a bratty precision, while guitarist CJ Macleod and bassist Ethan Hill scratch and bang and saw away at the band’s inherently beachy sound. The best part of this fledgling band story, though, is that of drummer Sammi Davis, an individual who had never sat behind a drum kit until a week prior to the band’s first show. Hardly a novice, Davis shows no mercy when tearing through the reverb with a floor tom force, giving SAUNA the necessary punch to throw the group far beyond the confines of a lo-fi surf rock band.

There are a lot of reasons to like SAUNA’S radical take on rock n’ roll. But mostly, SAUNA rules because the band doesn’t have to act like the coolest kids at school—they are the coolest kids. —Bree Davies