Whole Thing Is Just There, The

LA quartet that uses emo as a point-of-departure for adventurous, jazz-inspired and improvisation-heavy jams. Loose, meandering, and melodically askew like Sonic Youth, but swapping out Sonic Youth’s cool for wide-eyed wonder. Perfect for lovers of ’90s mathy post-rock like Slint, Rodan, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Chavez, and Lift to Experience not long after. Also great for lovers of newer, rough-around-the-edges emo-ish bands like Big Thief or TWIABP. And what other rock ’n’ roll bands are putting [good] twenty-minute songs on their records right now? Favorites: 1, 3, 5. No FCCs detected.

1. *(5:58)—Upbeat. Grungy, mathy plod to start. Stops and picks up speed. Long build, post-rock meets Steve Reich. Slow again before a bashout ending.
2. (6:58)—Piano beginning. Slow and blocky rock. Metaphysical lyrics. Long instrumental jam section. Nice big group vocal finish.
3. *(4:17)—Slow, woozy, warm, pretty. Explores its own vibe, doesn’t jump around, except for a nice noisy guitar solo.
4. (6:21)—Mid-tempo, stuttering beat. Really reminds me of Lift to Experience. Some Thin Lizzy moments, too! Jazzy middle. Long distorted guitar finish.
5. *(5:34)—Mid-tempo. Starts with post-rock guitar. Minimal, pretty jazz-like improvisations. Dreamy, yearning build: beautiful! Fades out.
6. (20:39)—Slow, relaxed beat. Builds and hits a shuddering groove. Long jam, up and down and up and down. Goes way out. Spoken/sung middle reminds me a bit of both Patti Smith and Anohni. And back to the beginning.