Tyvek

Detroit lo-fi garage rockers Tyvek bash out noisy and chaotic yet focused punk songs with observational lyrics. Named after a popular brand of synthetic home-siding, they started gaining recognition around 2008 alongside fellow noise poppers <a href="spotify:artist:0WkO9Px6qQCM7so8lYvaCv">Vivian Girls</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0oFIPnarjYKDTVgNQU0bbo">Times New Viking</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1ruTKWsHzMZbKC1WwhKhPc">Eat Skull</a>, among other bands associated with a resurgence of raw, underground rock music. The group have released proper albums like Nothing Fits (2010) and On Triple Beams (2012), plus numerous limited cassettes, CD-Rs, and singles, as their lineup constantly shifts, with players from throughout the Detroit music scene joining leader Kevin Boyer. 2016's Origin of What incorporated elements of dub along with some of the band's most socially conscious lyrics, and 2023's Overground featured bleating no wave saxophone.

Tyvek was founded by songwriter/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Boyer, who has been the only constant member of the group. After recording a multitude of 7" singles for the labels <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22X%22">X</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22What%27s+Your+Rupture%3F%22">What's Your Rupture?</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22M%27Lady%27s+Records%22">M'Lady's Records</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S-S%22">S-S</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sub+Pop%22">Sub Pop</a>, the band took a year to record their first full-length, which arrived on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Siltbreeze%22">Siltbreeze</a> in 2009. The band ramped up in 2010, releasing the demo LP Skyin, and their first album for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22In+the+Red%22">In the Red</a>, Nothing Fits. An album recorded at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Third+Man+Records%22">Third Man Records</a> in Nashville was released in early 2011 as part of the label's Third Man Live series. In 2012 the group followed up with another monument to lo-fi, On Triple Beams. After several limited cassettes on Boyer's Doubles Tapes label, Tyvek returned to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22In+the+Red%22">In the Red</a> in 2016 with the full-length Origin of What.

By 2017, the band settled into a regular lineup consisting of Boyer, guitarist Shelley Salant, drummer <a href="spotify:artist:6QA7spY3kFRPGsl2xV4QTf">Fred Thomas</a>, and bassist Alex Glendening. A 7" EP titled Changing Patterns of Protective Coating appeared in 2019, and the live cassette Boxing Day F​ê​te was issued in 2022, with saxophonist Emily Roll joining the group. Blunt Instrumentals, an LP compiling the music from two cassettes recorded in 2009 along with previously unreleased material, was issued by Salant's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ginkgo+Records%22">Ginkgo Records</a> in 2023. The same label also released the band's studio album Overground, which featured ten songs speeding by in a frenetic rush as well as a slower, longer spoken word piece. ~ Jason Lymangrover & Paul Simpson, Rovi