I’ve been complaining about indie rock a lot lately. Everything that falls within the genre has sounded trite and generic to me, which is frustrating, mainly because “indie rock” is such a vague way to describe music anyway. There are so many different bands and styles out there that fall under the huge “indie rock” umbrella, but all I’ve heard as of late from this genre is hardly original.
And then, Why? came along.
Alopecia is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, but also an obvious member of the indie rock family. In other words, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Let’s go surface level for a second. Look at that band name. It has a question mark. Why? was already scoring points with me even before I listened to the first song.
They’ve got much more than unconventional punctuation, though. Why? doesn’t succumb to what have become the standard indie rock conventions. Boyswhoblush, the Last.fm friend who recommended Alopecia, described this group as “hard to describe,” and I’ve gotta agree. I’ll do my best, though. Indie-folk-psych-hop, perhaps? Yeah, that’s what I’ll go with.
Front man Yoni Wolf (yes, he is the son of a rabbi) is the reason for Why?’s awesomeness. He switches seamlessly between indie sing-talking, and straight-up rapping. And it never get’s old. He contributes directly to the variety of music that you get when you listen to a Why? album. His delivery is all over the place, but always great, which definitely keeps the record interesting. His awesome lyrics shine on my favorite track, Good Friday. I’m probably going to link to this blog on college applications, so there’s no way I’m going to quote my favorite line, but let me tell you, it’s brilliant. Why? is definitely a band that I need to hear from again.
Swole Ear 
I finally got around to listening to this, I’m glad you reviewed it because I don’t know if I would have heard of it otherwise, and that would be tragic, haha.