A.A. Bondy

After the disintegration of his band Verbena—which made records for Merge and later with Dave Grohl (as producer) for Capitol—A.A. Bondy ditched his old grungy sound. With When The Devil’s Loose, he moved onto simply accompanied, mostly acoustic music under his own name. The approach has a spiritual bent, a mix of intensity and weariness that makes Bondy’s music feel like 3 a.m. in a dark room illuminated by a single light bulb swinging softly at its center. Bondy’s latest album, Believers, captures that middle-of-the-night restlessness just as powerfully as his first two releases, and the record’s illusory beauty is equally captivating. A record that lives in that elusive space between sleep and awakening, Believers makes insomnia sexy.

Updated 10/26/2011