Wye Oak is an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

duo from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States, composed of Andy Stack (drums, keyboards, backup vocals) and

Jenn Wasner Jennifer Lynn Wasner (born April 16, 1986) is an American musician from Baltimore, Maryland. Wasner is best known as one of the founding members of the band Wye Oak, along with Andy Stack. They have performed on tour with notable bands such as ...

(vocals, guitars and bass). Their sound has been described as "earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream pop" as well as

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

. Wasner sings lead vocals and plays electric or acoustic guitar, while Stack plays both drums and keyboards, playing the drums with his feet and right hand, and the bass line with his left hand.

History

The band was formed as Monarch in mid-2006, before changing their name to Wye Oak, a reference to the former state tree of their home state of Maryland. They released their first album, '' If Children'', independently in 2007 and subsequently signed to

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

in 2008. The label re-released ''If Children'' that year; a second album, '' The Knot'', followed in 2009. Both albums were recorded at the recording studio at

University of Maryland Baltimore County The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

, where Stack was a student, with '' The Knot'' submitted as Stack's senior project. Their third album, ''

Civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

'', was released in March 2011 by Merge in the US and

City Slang City Slang is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. History The label was founded in 1990 by former tour agent Christof Ellinghaus, exclusively to release The Flaming Lips' '' In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine S ...

in Europe. The title track was featured in The Walking Dead during the tenth episode of season 2, titled “18 Miles Out”, and also in

Safety Not Guaranteed ''Safety Not Guaranteed'' is a 2012 American science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass. The picture was screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Scr ...

. They followed with '' Shriek'' in April 2014. In 2016, they released ''

Tween Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence.New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 2005. Oxford University Press. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is ...

'', consisting of leftover material recorded between ''Civilian'' and ''Shriek''. On April 6, 2018, their next full-length album, ''

The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs ''The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs'' is the sixth studio album by indie band Wye Oak. It was released digitally on April 6, 2018 by Merge Records in the United States. Music videos On the day of the album's release, Wye Oak debuted the musi ...

'', was released. For their ''The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs'' tour during the spring of 2018, Wye Oak added bassist William Joseph Hackney to the live line-up.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' If Children'' (2007, self-released; 2008,

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

) *'' The Knot'' (2009, Merge) *''

'' (2011, Merge) *'' Shriek'' (2014, Merge) *''

'' (2016, Merge) *''

'' (2018, Merge)

Compilation album

*''Cut All the Wires: 2009-2011'' (2021, Merge)

Singles and EPs

*"Destroyer/Wye Oak" split 7" single with

Destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

(2008, Merge) *"My Neighbor/My Creator" 12"/CD EP (2010, Merge) *"Holy Holy" (2011,

) *"The Alter" (2011, City Slang) *"Strangers" 7" single (2011, Merge) *"Spiral" digital single (2012,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

Singles Program 2012) *"Shriek" (2014, City Slang) *"Trigger Finger" 7" single (2015, Joyful Noise) *"Wave Is Not the Water" (2017, Merge) *"The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs" (2018, Merge) *"Fortune" (2019, Merge) *"Fear of Heights" (2020, Merge) *"Walk Soft" (2020, Merge) *''No Horizon'' EP (2020, Merge)

Music videos

* "It Was Not Natural" (2018) * "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs" (2018) * "Watching the Waiting" (2016) * "Glory" (2014) * "The Tower" (2014) * "Holy, Holy" (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wye Oak (band) Indie rock musical groups from Maryland Merge Records artists Rock music duos Musical groups established in 2006 Musical groups from Baltimore Shoegazing musical groups City Slang artists