Kevin Bronson on November 29th, 2017

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The (sometimes) masked men doing business as L.A. trio the Cabin Fever are songwriter Sean Moriarity, along with Joel Bedolla and Tripp Beam. They explore their fears and loathing in warm but melancholic neo-shoegaze narrated by Moriarty’s half-whispered vocals. Their debut EP, the cheekily titled “Enjoy Yourself,” came out in 2016 and touched on agoraphobia, paranoia and “Wasabi nightmares.” The Cabin Fever’s follow-up is due Feb. 2. Titled “Exercise the Demon,” it was made with Grammy-winning engineer Husky Höskulds and features contributions from Alvaro Vela, Jon Joseph and Patrick Taylor, the latter of whom does some affecting string arrangements. The title track is indeed an exercise in exorcism, with Moriarty sighing away the demons in a way recalling the tender moments on Earlimart’s mid-Aughts albums “Mentor Tormentor” and “Treble & Tremble.” Gentle now, they might fight back.

||| Stream: “Exercise the Demon” and “Trucrime”