Pinback

An indie-rock outfit whose heady music combines intricate playing with instantly catchy melodies, California’s Pinback have been a cult favorite since their formation in 1998. Three Mile Pilot bassist Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Heavy Vegetable frontman Rob Crow began Pinback as a studio project, bringing in Three Mile Pilot drummer Tom Zinser to play on the recordings that would make up their 1999 self-titled debut. In the years that followed, Smith and Crow stayed at Pinback’s core while a rotating cast of musicians, including San Diego drummer Chris Prescott, came in to fill out the duo’s singular vision on tours as well as on releases that combined math rock’s complexity with indie pop’s immediacy. Released in 2004, Summer In Abbadon stripped down Pinback’s sonics to their essentials while retaining the band’s knotty songwriting, while 2012’s Information Retrieved maintained the mood with gentle grooves and elliptical lyrics.