Vundabar is a Boston-based trio that delivers jangly, fuzzed-out math-and surf-tinged indie rock shot through with plenty of post-punk spirit. Formed in 2013 by vocalist/guitarist Brandon Hagen and drummer Drew McDonald while still in high school, the duo eventually recruited bassist Zack Abramo and began playing locally. Sporting a melody-rich blend of knotty folk and loud-soft-loud indie rock à la Beantown luminaries Pixies, Vundabar issued their debut album, Antics, in late 2013. They adopted a grittier tone on 2015’s Gawk, which added grungy post-punk to the mix. The cathartic and dense Smell Smoke arrived in 2018, delivering an earworm-heavy set that was both bracing and sincere, and in 2020 the trio released the tight and succinct Either Light, which saw them working with a producer, Patrick Hyland (Mitski), for the first time. In 2021, online snippets of fans singing along to the group’s 2015 single “Alien Blues”
flooded social media, which garnered millions of streams for the seven-year-old cut.
Devil for the Fire, Vundabar’s wide-ranging fifth studio effort, appeared the following year.
For decades the bright lights of New York have drawn artists to its storied city streets — those seeking their tribe, those looking to solidify their identity, and those hungry for inspiration and fresh encounters, all there for the taking on this new, broadened horizon. And now 26-year-old Ryan
Kaiser has joined those ranks, moving from Nashville to Brooklyn, at the tail-end of 2022. Except, unlike so many who have come before him, Kaiser’s already made a name for himself creating daydreamy, sun-blasted, Polaroid-pop as Yot Club.
With Yot Club’s second full-length, Rufus, Kaiser is expanding his sonic palette and challenging his own established modes of music making by letting collaborators in. The record includes co-writes with the likes of Tommy English (Carly Rae Jepsen, Kacey Musgraves), and singers Charli Adams and Harrison Lipton, with Patrick Wimberly (Lil Yachty, Joji, Blood Orange, MGMT) on mixing duties, and the result is a collection of songs that sounds bolder and brighter. From the shimmering surf-pop of opener “Stuntman,” to the minor chord angst and quiet-loud-quiet pulse of “New Day,” to The Strokesian swoon of album closer “Lazy Eyes,” Kaiser lo-fi hooks have a new cinematic scope.
