Imagine you’re sitting on the beach with friends and your favorite band, and that band is strumming on a few guitars and singing along. And then slowly, like kindling a fire, a song is written. The perfect ideas come together harmoniously, and the chords and strums remind you of a certain time in your life or a certain feeling that just needs to be expressed in the music. It sounds pretty amazing, right?

That is exactly how San Francisco based City Tribe wrote the title track from their upcoming album, Undertow. This group of talented California musicians are putting their personal touch on summery vibes, much along the lines of the Beach Boys or Van Morrison. But also, City Tribe effectively create a modern spin with fuzzy guitars, danceable rhythms and classic pop melodies, influenced by perky, fun-loving artists like Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes.

The west coast is notorious for birthing music acts that create nostalgia in beachy folk music, and City Tribe is no exception to this unwritten rule. Their tunes make the perfect companion to your summertime playlist, and serve as a warm “reflection of California” with every chord and every lyric.

For the band, their album Undertow marked a period of progression, where the band enjoyed a more active songwriting style that incorporated everyone working together as a unit. And the results are more than positive, as the tracks on Undertow give a polished and lively feel to a typically laid-back genre.

Undertow  will be released on July 29th, and a music video will follow shortly after. But if you can’t wait until then, City Tribe is currently spending time on tour, hitting up venues all over the west coast, including San Diego’s Sycamore Den this Friday.