Standout Track: No. 3, “Don’t Wait for Me,” a piece of eerie psych-folk laced with seasick guitars and wheezing flugelhorn melodies. The lyrics—eerie suburban-surrealist fare—could’ve jumped straight out of Jeff Mangum’s teenage diary. “Wrestling men with their photograph fish came to visit but stay/Curious dancers with wings on their faces fight for the right to your body,” sings guitarist Ben Usie. “She wanted to say ‘wait for me,’ but it’s good that you died when you did.”

Musical Motivation: Usie, a Mt. Pleasant resident, wrote the song about his grandfather, who succumbed to Alzheimer’s when the singer was still in grade school. “I was writing about it from a kid’s perspective,” he says. “I was just trying to put logic to it—taking all of these nonsensical memories I had about him, trying to figure out what was going on with his mind. The chorus is pretty heavy stuff, but Usie resists labeling the song a total bummer. “Even though my grandfather was really fucked up, it could have been a lot worse. It could have been a harder battle for everybody around him,” he explains. “I don’t think of it as depressing song.

Log Crabbin’: In keeping with its woodsy sound, Frau Eva has the commune/collectivist spirit down—each member contributes songs, writes parts, and helps fine-tune the arrangements. There are arguments, but the spats rarely center around creative control. Instead, they skew domestic. “We fight about stupid simple shit,” says Usie. “Dave [Klinger] and Vanessa [Degrassi] are dating. I live with Dave. Vanessa lives really close. We mostly fight about what we’re going to cook.”