Feral Children dropped off the radar in 2010 after the Seattle band released its second LP, Brand New Blood. So it was with some surpirse that today the bandmembers poked their yelpy heads out into the sunlight again, announcing a forthcoming new LP, Too Much, Too Late, due July 15. Surprise!

Whatever woodland grotto they crawled under these past three years must have had a lot of Replacements records and sunshine. The group’s new single “Rewind the Rerun” is a complete 180 degree turn from the Feral Children’s signature spazzed out, dark forest jams. Instead, here we have a straight-up summery pop punk song, replete with “oh oh oh”s. The percussion is much more straightforward than in the past, even veering toward the surf-cymbal rides on the backs of which La Luz has been cowabunga cruising through Seattle.

Judging by the single, it sounds like this surprise third LP is taking Feral Children in a new direction — from the forests to the beaches.