“Two Is Better Than One,” by Backyard Star, earns Song of the Day honors on the strength of a single lyric: Can you play the tambourine / On two and four not one and three? That may be the most beautiful couplet I’ve ever heard in any song.

“Two Is Better Than One” triangulates somewhere between points defined by pre-Beggars Banquet Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and every person who’s ever picked up an acoustic guitar and tried to write a love song using D, A, and G chords. That’s a good place to live; you’ll never be sad and if you get hungry you can munch on the chorus. The track strums to life with the aforementioned acoustic guitar, adds tambourine (playing, ironically, eighth notes), bass and drums, and builds to a stirring kazoo solo. I doubt if “Two Is Better Than One” wins a Grammy, but it should. I mean, if you don’t like it, you really need to stop playing Fortnite and get out of the house more often. Either that or somebody’s got a case of the Mondays.

Backyard Star is Matt Fass (guitar, bass, drums, vocals) and Trevor Stone (guitar, vocals, piano) with additional vocals by Jenny (no last name). “Two Is Better Than One” is from their new three-song EP, iPhone Demo. On the EP’s Bandcamp page, we learn “All songs [were] recorded on an iPhone with a multitrack app; only mic used is the built in iPhone mic.” Which should be very annoying to anyone who’s tried to record with a more professional setup and produced buzzy, latency-enriched sludge. The band self-locates in Los Angeles, though they used to record in Dixon, CA under the name Dixon. Backyard Star released a full-length album, Love Diaries, one year ago. Aaaaand… that’s all that I know about them.

You can support deserving independent musicians like Backyard Star by visiting their Bandcamp page, listening to their songs, and downloading your favorite tracks. Go ahead and buy the entire iPhone Demo EP. All three tracks are Song of the Day quality.  And check out recordings by Dixon on Soundcloud.