Beach Slang: Bruised, beat & DIY

With only eight songs spread over two 7-inchers released last year - "Who Would Want Anything So Broken?" and "Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street" - Beach Slang managed to win over the yearning hearts of punks looking for a triumph.

Audiences have come to learn the intricacies of the loud, yet welcoming anthems; to memorize lyrics like "I hope when I die, I feel this alive."

They'll get to hear them live on Monday at PhilaMOCA.

But the Philly band is ready to show off more.

Front man and guitarist James Alex called as he was putting the finishing touches on the album art for the punk trio's debut, out on Polyvinyl in October. He'd just gotten an email from the record company requesting some tweaks to the design - namely including the record's barcode.

It's always been this way, this self-contained operation. From their Tumblr, full of black and white photographs tagged with Beach Slang lyrics, to the content of their songs - direct, focused and nostalgic. Everything you need to know about Beach Slang, rounded out by drummer JP Flexner and bassist Ed McNulty, exists in their own little world.

"We pride ourselves over being this sort of DIY thing," Alex said. "There's a certain way with how I want this to look and feel, right?"

They encompass everything that the Philadelphia music scene has been lauded for as of late: that DIY attitude. Musicians working hard, playing basements in-between shifts at their day jobs - Alex is a graphic designer at local branding agency 160over90.

Despite existing as a band for just a year, this isn't the threesome's first foray into music. Alex played in Bethlehem pop-punk outfit Weston, Flexner in Ex Friends and McNulty in Crybaby - all local bands. With Beach Slang, they take their experiences in the Philly music scene and magnify it, making it accessible for all the other kids who feel a little out of place or downtrodden.

"I want it to look bruised and beat," Alex said. "Part of being alive is being incomplete. It's all kind of a mess and we try to make the best of it. I never want to get comfortable."

That discomfort comes through in the music. You can hear the anguish in Alex's weathered vocals, like he's seen his fair share of hard times and late nights - and that's exactly how he wants Beach Slang songs to be. It's about being accessible and highlighting life's ups and downs.

"I think the thing with Beach Slang is, you sort of acknowledge the knockdowns," he said. "It never really gets too depressing. It turns the dials on the getup part and that's the way I sort of approach life. There's sort of hanging off the cliff and not jumping."

There then comes that fine line between being just personally fulfilled enough to be happy and having enough inner strife to create work that doesn't feel contrived and plastic. For Alex, he relies on creative tensions, even sometimes imagined struggles, to keep himself in check.

"When you get comfortable in a thing, that edge, that blade, kind of dulls a little bit and I think that shows in the work," he said. "You can be happy enough. You don't have to be horribly depressed, or have a wretched existence."

With a highly anticipated debut album on the way and residence in one of America's hottest rock cities, it's hard for Alex to really be down about anything.

"I want to do right by this city," he said. "Beach Slang is looked upon as one of the bands doing good in Philadelphia. I don't want to embarrass that. It's a pretty amazing city. To even have the smallest part in something it's doing feels really incredible."

Though with all that hype behind both the band and Philly, he does admit to a little nervousness.

"My whole self esteem is a mess. Something like this happens and I don't want to be the person who blew it for the city. I just want to do my part."

Beach Slang with Hurry, Mike Bell, & The Movies and Ghost Gum, PhilaMOCA, 8 p.m. Monday, $12-$14, philamoca.org