Jackson Free Press

Honesty, exuberance and joy come through in the work of The Weekend Kids, a Flowood-based collective of five high-school friends.

Drummer Cody Bass, 20, bassist and background vocalist Salar Almakky, 20, guitarist Travis Bass, 22, lead singer and guitarist Hayden Boyd, 21, and guitarist Micah Boyd, 22, have been playing together since April 2012, shortly after the youngest members, Bass and Almakky, graduated from high school. While everyone is spread across the state for college—Almakky and Travis Bass are in Starkville, and Cody Bass is in Hattiesburg—the Boyd brothers are the only members living full-time in the Jackson area.

"Since we all pretty much live in separate places, we write music separately, but we all put our own different musical tastes and influences into songs," Hayden Boyd says.

The band typically produces material through the Boyd brothers' simple recording software, with members emailing parts of songs to each other. The Weekend Kids' remote collaboration and freedom to record what they want to hear provides license to craft a sound based on the separate members' influences, including early rock 'n' roll melodies, punk rhythms and post-rock guitars.

In October 2012, the band wrote and recorded its debut album, "Animals," a work with rolling drums and guitar melodies rooted in classic rock 'n' roll from 1960s California. In addition to surf rock, punk also drives songs such as "Fish Tacos," and modern-rock reverb floats through "Focus." The result is a sound similar to Wavves in its edgy reference to '60s surf culture, but with a brighter and more approachable sound featuring clear, multi-vocal harmonies.

In September, The Weekend Kids re-released its three-song EP, "Sick Youth"—which first came out in May on CD and digitally—on 7-inch vinyl. "Sick Youth" marks the continued development of the band through three-part vocals and a larger sound for the band's three guitars.

"We wanted to keep the '60s California-rock influence but be more than just surf rock," Boyd says. The punk and progressive elements in "Sick Youth" indicate an intelligent and hard-working ethos at the core of the band.

Boyd says the next few months for The Weekend Kids include local shows around Jackson and continued work on the band's next full album, due for a spring 2014 release.

The Weekend Kids perform Nov. 9 at Hal & Mal's (200 S. Commerce St., 601-948-0888) during the Elegant Trainwreck/Homework Town One-Year Anniversary. Listen to The Weekend Kids at theweekendkidsms.bandcamp.com, and find the band on Facebook.

Check out all of JFP's 2013 Artists to Watch here.