Wand

When the Los Angeles group Wand formed in 2013, they played a wickedly spooky brand of psychedelic garage rock tinged with heavy metal. Over the course of three albums recorded in a couple years, the band's leader Cory Hanson wielded full control over their claustrophobic sound. The band's lineup changed along the way and Hanson loosened his grip on their sonic boundaries, allowing the new bandmembers more say in their newly classic rock- and modern pop-influenced approach. 2017's Plum was the first Wand album to reflect this change.

Hanson started the band with drummer Evan Burrows, guitarist Daniel Martens, and bassist Lee Landey and immediately dove headfirst into a sludgy, psychedelic garage rock. They quickly put together an abundance of material that straddled the line between melodic and noise-heavy, issuing split singles with artists like Mikal Cronin and Meatbodies before being signed by Ty Segall to his Drag City spinoff label God? for the release of their 2014 debut LP Ganglion Reef. Wand embarked on a tour supporting Segall for the release of the album. The band's next record was recorded over a 12-day span by Chris Woodhouse at The Dock in Sacramento, California, and saw the band expanding its sound with synthesizers and showing a deeper heavy metal influence. Golem was released in early 2015 by In the Red Records. Not a band to waste any time, Wand returned before the end of the year with their third album, 1000 Days. Released by Drag City proper this time, the album saw Wand incorporating more electronics into their sound, while integrating their metal and psych elements even further.

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