Kevin Bronson on June 12th, 2014

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Matt Kivel says that his second solo album “Days of Being Wild” (out July 8 on Woodsist) was inspired by bouts of listening to classic rock, so the directness and simplicity in his bare-bones meditations come as no surprise. The album, the follow-up to last fall’s “Double Exposure,” was recorded during some whiskey- and beer-addled sessions with Paul Oldham and other friends in a shed in Echo Park. It sees Kivel, two years removed from his last release as part of the sibling-propelled indie-pop band Princeton, crafting understated acoustic miniatures – and, occasionally, plugging in to rage a little, as on “Open Road.” That 2 1/2-minute blast suggests more of the hard stuff may be in order.

||| Stream: “Open Road” and “Insignificance”

||| Live: Matt Kivel opens for Ben Watt on Friday at the Echoplex. He celebrates his album release with an afternoon show July 13 at Materials & Applications in Silver Lake, and he also opens for the Clientele on July 26 at the Satellite.

Photo by Cara Robbins