The Musical Evolution of Silversun Pickups

By: Grant Sharples

Mid-2000s indie rock was characterized by raw guitar work, as exemplified by bands like Modest Mouse and The Strokes. Silversun Pickups’ Pikul is representative of this trend, and introduced the standard sound of the band: fuzzed out guitars, a locked-in rhythm section, and Brian Aubert’s startlingly capricious vocals. It’s the perfect balance of experimental and conventional. Rather than stick to the overdone verse-chorus song formula, the band expounds on it. They make unexpected returns to the verses, often conclude the song with the bridge, and make the choruses slightly different each time they play through them. These progressive elements come through clear on the progressive eight-minute track “All the Go Inbetweens."

Carnavas established the alternative quartet as the modern torchbearers of 90’s shoegaze music. Carnavas adhered to the formula of their previous EP but also introduced a 90’s alt-rock shoegaze influence, à la Smashing Pumpkins and Slowdive. Although it was primarily revivalism, it was fresh to hear because there were seldom any bands still playing shoegaze.

Compared to Pikul, Carnavas does a better job of grabbing the listener’s attention. “Well Thought Out Twinkles” demonstrates the band’s fearlessness of embracing their loud side, while “Lazy Eye” showcases their mastery of dynamics, encompassing soft and fragile moods in the verses only to break them in the bridge with a loud, triumphant wash of fuzzed-out guitars and screaming vocals. 

Swoon sees the quartet experimenting with different effects and sounds such as the haunting guitar echo throughout “Growing Old Is Getting Old,” and the striking rhythmic syncopation of the bass and drums in “It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone”. Silversun Pickups greatly advance their guitar work on this album with moments such as the flashy guitar solo on “Panic Switch” and the contrast of different tonal effects on “There’s No Secrets This Year”. The strategically placed song transitions also make Swoon feel more like an album than an arbitrary collection of songs.

2009/2010 was a transition in alternative music towards polished synth-heavy sounds such as Arctic Monkeys’ Humbug and Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Neck of the Woods continued exploring this trend in alternative music, and was produced by Jacknife Lee (famous for producing R.E.M. and Bloc Party). Lee pushed the quartet out of their comfort zone, making them strive for something more eclectic than their previous works. With the release of this album, Silversun Pickups were crafting a style distinct from their influences.

The album opener “Skin Graph” accurately sets up the listener for the rest of the record with its complex introductory drum beat. “Make Believe” plays around with different time signatures, exploring the daunting realm of 7/8 in the verses and bridge and then relaxing into a standard 4/4 groove in the chorus. They also play around with electronic sounds. The swarming synths at the beginning of “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” are perfectly placed to add depth and density. The syncopation between the sixteenth-note synthesizer pattern and electronic drums on “The Pit” allows the band to venture out with their sound but also incorporate the standard catchiness of their singles. Similar to Swoon, the album is more recognizable as a whole work rather than a collection of songs.

For their most recent release, they returned to Jacknife Lee for production. The album took the fuzzed-out guitars and electronic experimentation and melded them together to represent the current trend in indie rock. A prime example of this is the second track, “Connection”, in which the haunting synth pad in the background of the chorus complements the melody of the guitar. As the song progresses, it toys around with the percussion and rhythm, encompassing the rhythmic aspect of their previous record. During the bridge, there are sixteenth-note patterns with various auxiliary percussion instruments and synths that share a “call-and-response” relationship with the guitars. “Pins And Needles” incorporates a groove-oriented drum pattern at a funk tempo. “The Wild Kind” is a seven-minute track that gives the record a triumphant closure that has never been heard before on a Silversun Pickups album. 

While Silversun Pickups have always been trying to evolve and shape their signature sound, they have also been intelligently following the current trend in their genre and incorporating it into their music. Their older records represented the mid-2000s with its guitar-heavy tracks, and their later records embodied the electronic experimentation of 2011/2012. Nonetheless, they have always payed homage to their fan base by keeping their signature style.