Drag City

San Francisco’s Sic Alps continue to shed the rough skin of their noise rock past on their eponymous fifth release, and third for the Drag City label. Yes, shades of their sonic sandstorms for Woodsist and Siltbreeze remain present in the undercurrent of such tracks as “Polka Vat” and “Drink Up!” But it’s the moments of pure Northern California calm here that truly highlight the ever increasing strengths of Mike Donovan and Matthew Hartman’s aptitudes as songwriters – evidenced in the Skip Spence-meets-Loaded_-era Velvet Underground pulchritude of material like “Lazee Son” and the lush, lovely “Rock Races.” Stephen Malkmus, you are wrong: Sic Alps aren’t going to be one of the most important bands of the next ten years. They already are.