Freedom Fry, "Shaky Ground (Hey Na Na Na)"

Listening to indie pop from California on a dreary winter day is an effective method of escapism: you forget the snow and the freezing temperatures. When you crank the tunes and close your eyes, you feel transported to a land of warm beaches and convertibles.

Freedom Fry – the L.A.-based duo of Parisian singer/songwriter Marie Seyrat and Michigan native Bruce Driscoll (also of Blondfire) – provides a sonic vacation with their first single of 2015, “Shaky Ground (Hey Na Na Na)”. It is 3 ½ minutes of pure audio sunshine. You can’t listen to it just once. It’s a toe-tapping, head-bobbing, play-air-drums-on-your-steering-wheel (or desk, if you listen at work) tune that gives a bigger energy boost than a postprandial espresso.

Freedom Fry makes upbeat, catchy music. The songs are fun but far from saccharine. Seyrat and Driscoll channel 60s-era musical vibes (California surf rock and the chic French sophistication of Serge Gainsbourg), and the result is a breezy, stylish, and thoroughly modern sound.

Seyrat and Driscoll began collaborating in 2011 and have released several EPs on the Caveman Arts Society label. Freedom Fry is a band you may have heard without knowing them by name, from in-store playlists in Starbucks and Victoria’s Secret, to TV commercials and an episode of the TV drama Bones. They shared the stage with Phantogram last July; the next month, their song “Summer in the City” was featured prominently in a segment on NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams. Despite this exposure, they are not yet household names. If they keep producing such addictive, smile-inducing music, everyone will know their name.

Their songs are available on iTunes and Bandcamp.

“Shaky Ground (Hey Na Na Na)” video: