Infinite Shuffle

It’s been almost two years since I saw them live at SXSW, but now seems like as good a time as any to talk about Family of the Year.

The indie-pop group from Los Angeles has roots in several different locales, particularly Massachusetts. Brothers Joseph and Sebastian Keefe were born in Wales and eventually moved to Martha’s Vineyard. They were part of a couple of regionally well-known bands in the Boston area. Eventually, they and some bandmates moved to L.A., where they met Christina Schroefer, thus completing the core group that would become Family of the Year.

While occasionally dabbling in some different musical genres, the vast majority of Family of the Year’s sound centers around beautiful male-female harmonies and pop-folk instrumentation.

That is the first track on the band’s debut EP, 2009’s Where’s the Sun. It was originally titled “Down to the River” but was changed when it was included on Songbook, the debut full-length that was released later that year.

While the album was a nice starting spot for the band, it only had one other real notable track, “Let’s Be Honest”.

During the next two-plus years, the group put out a trip of EPs — Through the Trees, St. Croix and Diversity. The most notable track from these that wouldn’t eventually make its way on a full-length in the States was “Chugjug”, which was included in a 2010 Advil commercial.

Finally, in July 2012, the band put out its sophomore full-length, Loma Vista. With its tighter compositions, stronger harmonies and catchier tracks, the album stands as a notable step forward for the band.

Some of the better tracks are “The Stairs”, “Diversity”, “Hero”, Everytime” and “Find It”. But the best track here, and arguably the band’s best to date, is “St. Croix”.

Family of the Year were actually just in Chicago on Sunday for the final day of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival. Unfortunately, the show was sold out by the time I became interested in it.

With any luck, it won’t be too long before they return to the Windy City.