The Jameses

Sometimes described as “ambient pop-punk,” Lake Worth, Florida’s the Jameses feature multi-instrumentalist Dan McHugh, bassist Jesse Bryan, and drummer Danny Hitchcock. The trio of friends began playing together while in their early teens, riffing through sounds including Anticon-style hip-hop and punk. However, the Jameses began as the project of McHugh and Hitchcock — who share the middle name James — in the late 2000s. Bryan, who had since moved to New York City, was impressed with the Jameses' mix of punk, pop, and psychedelia and began splitting his time between the Big Apple and the West Palm Beach area to play in the band. The band’s debut single, The Haunted Rider/Rat People, arrived in summer 2010; when Captured Tracks owner Mike Sniper heard it playing in a Brooklyn record store, he signed the band to his roster. That December, Bryan helped found Zitfest, a festival celebrating the Palm Beach/Miami-area indie rock scene that featured the Jameses' tourmates Lil Daggers as well as bands including Band in Heaven and the Jacuzzi Boys. The Jameses made their Captured Tracks debut with the Caribou/Fifth Dimension single, which arrived late in 2010. The band’s first full-length was expected early in 2012.