Papercuts

Papercuts is a San Francisco indie rock band that started in the late 1990s with Jason Quever at the center. Their sound has that hazy, dreamy quality people associate with the city's fog, and Quever's voice tends to float over it all. The lineup has shifted around him over time, with people like guitarist Chris Cohen and drummer Jeremy Gara passing through at different points.

Their second album, 'Can't Make a Sound,' from 2001, got some attention for its mood. A song like 'Dear Employee,' from the 2005 album 'Fading Parade,' is a good example of what they do, a quiet, melodic track about the grind of office life that doesn't shout its point. They've kept putting out records fairly steadily, like 'You Can Have What You Want' in 2008 and 'Past Life Regression' in 2021.

They've never been a huge commercial act, and some listeners have found their music too downbeat or introspective. But for a certain audience, that's exactly the draw, the space their songs create for reflection, without much fanfare.