Why? - Sanddollars - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Why? - Split [COMPACT DISCS] Jewel Case Packaging date 04/09/2002

2009 from the genre-bending Bay Area band, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed album Alopecia. Leader Yoni Wolf and the gang actually recorded Eskimo Snow at the same time as Alopecia, at Minneapolis' Third Ear studio, with Fog's Andrew Broder and Mark Erickson rounding out a live quintet. The vision for two separate albums emerged on a snowed-in night after a hot toddy or two. If Alopecia, however inexplicably, maintains a summery tone, then Eskimo Snow captures the bite and resignation of the Midwestern winters with which these Cincinnati boys grew up.

2013 EP from Why? the Wolf brothers' Pop-inflected Psychedelic Folk-Hop was nominally referred to as Hip-Hop at the beginning of their career. At this point certainly on Golden Tickets the project has outgrown any easy genre-categorization. With the musical eclecticism, Pop-twist, and experimental bent of artists like the Flaming Lips or Beck. Why? shimmers on this album in vibraphone stippled, sweetly riffed songs with characteristically gut-wrenching subtext.