Click here for photos of Wye Oak at SXSW 2016 in Austin, TX
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at The Parish in Austin, TX on July 6th, 2014
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at Webster Hall in New York, NY on May 7th, 2014
Click here for QRO’s review of Wye Oak at Uptown Theatre in Kansas City, KS on October 12th, 2011
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at SXSW 2011
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at Koko in London, U.K. on February 23rd, 2011
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at 2010 Siren Music Festival on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY
Click here for photos of Wye Oak at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA on August 13th, 2009
Baltimore duo Wye Oak – singer-guitarist Jenn Wasner and drummer-keyboardist Andy Stack – began as a typical, if better, alt-folk duo (the kind that named their band after a tree, if the state tree of their home state of Maryland) with If Children (QRO review). Since then, however, they’ve seriously grown, expanding their sound with follow-up The Knot (QRO review), then evolving into keyboards with Civilian (QRO review) – Stack drums with one hand, plays keys with the other live – and now comes the Shriek, where the band goes full-board for dreamy synths, but with substance.
Yes, Shriek is an airy record, from opener “Before” on, certainly far away from the groups original shredding performance live. But it ranges on that new field, from the twinkling (“Sick Talk”) to the encompassing (the preceding “Glory”). There are darker moments (the ominous “Paradise”, moodier “School of Eyes”), but also brighter ones (the following “Despicable Animal”, chill-bright closer “Logic of Color”).
From alt-folk to garage-shred to garage-synth to synth-synth, the Wye Oak tree has certainly grown, out and up.
