The Garden

West Coast bass-and-drums punk duo the Garden rose through the ranks of the wonky, lo-fi Burger Records scene with quirky cassettes like 2012's Everything Is Perfect and 2013's The Life and Times of a Paperclip before notching a deal with Epitaph Records for the wild electro-punk of 2015's Haha and its 2018 follow-up, Mirror Might Steal Your Charm.

Growing up in the hardcore music of Saccharine Trust, the Minutemen, and Killing Joke, and sharing the quirky insider humor of bands like Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants, and Ween, twin brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears started the Garden in their hometown of Orange, California when they were 19 years old. After departing from their first band, M.H.V., and briefly modeling for Yves Saint Laurent, the two decided to make a go as a duo. With Fletcher on drums (easily identifiable by his blonde hair and habitual cross-dressing) and Wyatt singing and playing bass, the Garden released a debut cassette titled Everything Is Perfect in 2012, with The Life and Times of a Paperclip and the EP Rules appearing the following summer with all but the latter appearing via Burger Records. During this time, Fletcher Shears began releasing mostly electronic solo material under his side project Puzzle, and Wyatt started his synth/bass project Enjoy. The Garden toured extensively in 2014 and 2015, stopping in Tokyo, the U.S., and Europe. In the fall of 2015, they issued the freewheeling, 17-track electro-punk LP, Haha, a split production between Burger and Epitaph Records. The Garden's self-produced Epitaph follow-up, Mirror Might Steal Your Charm, arrived in 2018 featuring a slightly more guitar-driven sound. ~ Jason Lymangrover & Marcy Donelson