Aside from paving the way for truly awful band names in the new millennium, '90s act Archers of Loaf also blazed a trail for a great deal of the indie rock we take for granted today.
Eric Bachmann and his Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based crew took the shambolic pop of Sonic Youth and the slacker skronk of Pavement and cut them with a sharper, more energetic dissonance as well as, eventually, a more spacious, layered quality. After the band called it quits in 1998, Bachmann found further success as a solo artist, fittingly serving as a labelmate to both Cursive (on Omaha's Saddle Creek) and Arcade Fire (recording for Merge). Most of his post-Loaf recordings have been as Crooked Fingers, a far better moniker that also aptly illustrates the dusty Americana that's become infused with Bachmann's taste for the angular and epic.
These days, though, he's returning to his roots: Back in January, Archers of Loaf announced a reunion—at first just a one-off show back in their hometown, then a gig at Sasquatch! and, finally, a handful of dates across the country this summer, only two of which come between the coasts and one of which takes place in Dallas this weekend.
Seattle's The Globes, freshly signed to Barsuk, are slated to open.
