Kevin Bronson on October 19th, 2015

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If you miss the old Mumfords, or wonder Local Natives would sound like doing straight-ahead folk-rock, or remember the pristine harmonies of the short-lived L.A. quartet Chief, you’ll want to throw on some denim for new L.A. quintet Bird Dog. The band — three from Oklahoma, two from Texas — is comprised of guitarists Maxim Helmerich and Tyler Wimpee, bassist Eric Arndt , keyboardist-percussionist Colton Dearing and drummer Justin Kila. All but Kila team up on the vocals, fronted by Helmerich, who until this summer played guitar in the hip-hop/pop outfit Thick As Thieves (now on hiatus) that featured his sister Sunday.

For Bird Dog’s four-song EP, “Misty Shrub” (out Jan. 22 via L.A.-based IAMSOUND), the quintet worked with producer James McAlister, who has played with or been a member of Sufjan Stevens, Pedro the Lion, Rocky Votolato and Ester Drang; the setting was a dilapidated canyon house near Malibu, which, the band says, “had this great, warm sound that we all really fell in love with and wanted to capture.” While not quite as ready for the dusty plains as IAMSOUND labelmates Lord Huron, the first single “The Ocean and the Sea” begins as a beautiful folk ballad before the fuzzy guitars kick in, ratcheting up toward the chorus of “You’re older now.” In Helmerich’s case, different, too.

||| Stream: “The Ocean and the Sea”