Born out of some mythically fogless San Francisco, the acid folk/rock collective Citay embody those parts of the afternoon whereby the sun, always present but never so much so as to be blinding, feels like it’s never going to go away and you, lying in the grass of some wonderfully maintained park space or public square, are rendered immortal. Over the course of three albums — 2006’s self-titled, 2007’s Little Kingdom and now, via Dead Oceans, 2010’s Dream Get Together — have delicately balanced avant garde fervor with traditional songwriting, with results both fresh and intriguing. Unlike many in this or that subset of art rock, Citay prove that experimental music doesn’t necessarily have to be abrasive.

Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) once again acts as producer for Dream Get Together, and it seems as though the title is nothing more than an apt description of what, by the estimation of principal songwriter, acoustic guitarist and occasional vocalist Ezra Feinberg, took place on the album. Joining Feinberg in Citay for Dream Get Together are electric guitarists Sean Smith and Josh Pollack, bassist Diego Gonzalez, drummer Warren Huegel and vocalists Tahlia Harbour and Meryl Press, and while the names may not be immediately recognizable in terms of tabloid covers, some were around for Little Kingdom, and it’s abundantly clear in listening to the record that Feinberg knew exactly what he was doing when compiling this lineup of his band.

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