Triptides - Visitors (2018)

Employing a kaleidoscopic blend of breezy, retro-West Coast pop, knotty punk, and gritty, groove-laden psych-rock, the seeds for Los Angeles, California's Triptides were sewn in America's heartland, where co-founders Glenn Brigman and Josh Menashe met as University students in Bloomington, Indiana. The project's first yield was a pair of EPs, Triptides and Tropical Dreams, which arrived shortly after the band's formation. In 2011 they issued their debut long-player, Psychic Summer, with Sun Pavilion and Predictions following in 2012 and 2013, respectively. 2014 saw the group expanding with the addition of bassist Dylan Sizemore. It also saw their profile raised with an appearance at the Rock in Rio Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, where they shared the bill with a host of big name acts including the Rolling Stones and Queens of the Stone Age. The following year, Brigman and Menashe packed up and relocated to L.A. (Sizemore elected to stay in Indiana), where they hooked up with Bryant Fox (bass) and Brian Dove (drums). Their fourth LP, Azur, dropped later that year via Paris-based label Requiem Pour un Twister. The band spent the next year on the road, playing both at home and abroad, making appearances alongside contemporaries like Temples, Dead Meadow, and Boogarins. 2017 saw the departures of Fox and Dove, the arrival of drummer Shaugnessy Starr, and the return of bassist Dylan Sizemore, both of whom appeared on the group's fifth studio long-player, Afterglow. ~ James Christopher Monger