Two very talented Florida bands have teamed up for a new split release: Naps are following up last year’s debut EP You Will Live In A Cool Box (and a sick performance at our SXSW show) with The Most Beautiful Place On Earth, which also includes 5 best songs honoree “Social Skills“; fellow Tallahassee residents Yikes’ debut tape Commercial Music occupies the other half of the release. And while the two bands don’t share much sonic common ground, they are both very good. Yikes use their side to establish their needling rock sound, which at times hits on the same sort of comfort zone for me as the stretched-out ruminations of Broken Social Scene (especially on “Thought You’d Say”), though more tightly constructed. They end on a lethargic cover of Pavement’s “In The Mouth Of A Desert” that would surely make the old band proud. Naps’ half includes a rapturous cover of Danny L Harle’s “Aquarius,” one of the PC Music producer’s best, plus two new originals that demonstrate the exciting ways the band has been evolving since their debut: the title track is a scratchy and spectral-sounding number that feels great on a cloudy day, and “Bad Vibrations” taps into the same anxious vein as “Social Skills” and contains two relatable sentiments of equal measure — “Can’t shape up to the world’s expectations/ I’m living on a bad, bad vibration” and “the world’s too slow and I’m too fast.” Listen to the whole thing below.

Naps Tour Dates:
05/17 Tallahassee, FL @ The Mansion w/ Yikes, Ignu
05/18 Athens, GA @ The Globe w/ Breathers, Sea Ghost, Meth Wax
05/19 Asheville, NC @ Odditorium w/ Sentiments, Brief Awakening
05/21 Washington, DC @ Babe City w/ Tall Friend, Infinity Crush
05/23 Philadelphia, PA @ Milhouse w/ Lady Parts, Most Selfless Cheerleader, Kiss Man #4
05/24 Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades w/ Boosegumps, Normal Person, Rita Fishbone
05/29 Montclair, NJ @ The Spot w/ Coping Skills, Archie Alone, Circadian Clock, Clam Jam
06/02 Savannah, GA @ The Bomb Shelter w/ Coping Skills, Buddy Chapman Jr., Vinay Arora
06/04 Tallahassee, FL @ The Sweat Lodge w/ Yikes, Coping Skills

The Most Beautiful Place on Earth / Commercial Music is out now via It Takes Time Records/Viridian Sounds.