Sic Alps

Beginning as a messy, gritty indie rock affair rooted in noise pop and <a href="spotify:artist:1nJvji2KIlWSseXRSlNYsC">the Velvet Underground</a>'s seminal soporific lo-fi, Sic Alps formed in the early 2000s as a collaboration between Matt Hartman (formerly of Henry's Dress) and <a href="spotify:artist:4IfRXd7B6sEqN2zVxbnWjJ">Mike Donovan</a> (formerly of <a href="spotify:artist:7eJ2vvI32EmDgupEbA2jAE">the Ropers</a>); the two met in the late '90s while on tour with their respective bands. Starting with Semi-Streets, their cassette-only debut single released on Folding in the fall of 2004, Sic Alps released a little over half a dozen singles over the course of the next four years, along with three EPs (2006's The Soft Tour in Rough Form and Teenage Alps; 2007's Description of the Harbor) and a full-length album, A Long Way Around to a Shortcut, released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Animal+Disguise%22">Animal Disguise</a> in the spring of 2008. Another full-length album, U.S. EZ, was released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Siltbreeze%22">Siltbreeze</a> that summer. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> reissued A Long Way Around to a Shortcut in 2009, and that year the band kept busy playing dates with <a href="spotify:artist:4lpCk4elOX2vusSgqHVT56">Magik Markers</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0oFIPnarjYKDTVgNQU0bbo">Times New Viking</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5UqTO8smerMvxHYA5xsXb6">Sonic Youth</a>. In 2010, Sic Alps played the <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a>-curated <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22All+Tomorrow%27s+Parties%22">All Tomorrow's Parties</a> festival, supported the band on its Brixton Academy show, and contributed a track to an Amnesty International compilation. The band's first new album for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a>, Napa Asylum, arrived in January 2011 and was the first to feature new member Noel Von Haromonson. September 2012 saw the release of their self-titled sixth album, which offered a much more cleanly recorded sound and deeper delvings into psychedelic pop. The following year's She's on Top EP added a little muscle to the band's cleaned-up style. In July 2013, the group announced they were disbanding while on tour in Europe. That October, Donovan's solo debut WOT arrived. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi