Wye Oak

Wye Oak have carved out a singular indie-rock niche for themselves with an experimental spirit that has blurred genre lines since they formed in Baltimore in 2006. Composed of multi-instrumentalists and singers Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, the duo toy with sounds as diverse as folk and shoegaze on their debut, If Children, (2007) and The Knot (2009). They leaned into grunge on their 2011 breakthrough, Civilian—with the searing title track making its way onto The Walking Dead—while also pushing themselves toward more intricate arrangements that brought synths to the fore. Wasner’s dreamy vocals and cryptic lyricism provide the band’s calling cards and complement Stack’s stylistically eclectic soundscapes. In 2014, Shriek’s galactic synth-pop pushed them into new sonic territory, and 2018’s sprawling, polyrhythmic The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs confirmed the impossibility of pinning them down.