Kevin Bronson on July 24th, 2018

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The debut EP from L.A.-based quartet Harvey Trisdale falls into the realm of music that’s almost an endangered species these days: It’s indie-rockers’ indie-rock — a tableau of tricky guitars, prickly lyrics, sticky melodies and world-wary vignettes that would have made these lads heroes in the Silver Lake scene of the early Aughts.

The band — Evan Rasch, Carl Lehman, Tim Gruber and Jeremy Stern — got their start at tiny Kenyon College in Ohio’s breadbasket. (They draw their band name from a fictional alter-ego created after a late-night bender.) Lehman and Rasch have matriculated to L.A., while Stern is finishing school and Gruber resides in New York. The five songs on “Harvey Trisdale” were recorded at the latter locale last year, with the EP coming out last week via Baby Blue.

Angst is what propels these songs, and there is of course ample reason to feel that way these days. But it’s as if the quartet dialed back all the dynamics usually associated with attacks of dread. Theirs is instead an almost pastoral and sophisticated dread (think Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody fronting Pinback), lush right down to bitter bits. “Get all your plans / the f*ck out of my face” never sounded so pretty.

||| Stream: “Harvey Trisdale”