Pinback

Pinback formed in San Diego in the late 1990s around Rob Crow and Zach Smith, who had both been in Rocket from the Crypt. Their name came from a character in David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks.' They put out their first album, 'Sherwood,' in 2001, which set up the kind of music they'd keep making: layered guitar lines, quiet vocals, and lyrics that don't always explain themselves.

Songs like 'Loro' and 'Good To Sea' show how they work, tight, interlocking bass and guitar parts that feel both precise and a little drifting. They followed 'Sherwood' with records like 'Blue Screen Life' and 'Summer in Abaddon,' sticking with that detailed, inward-looking sound without getting stuck in one genre. Crow and Smith handle most of the writing and singing, trading off duties in a way that makes their records feel like a single conversation.

They've kept at it for more than two decades now, putting out six studio albums total. There was some label trouble early on, but they kept recording. The music hasn't changed all that much in outline, but the details shift from song to song, listen to 'Byzantine' or 'Proceed to Memory' and you hear the same careful construction, just arranged a little differently each time.