Mates Of State

Bands often don’t survive the major life changes of their members, but indie-pop duo Mates Of State has progressed from college friendship to a marriage to parenthood, while shifting its home base from Kansas to San Francisco to Connecticut. 2008’s Re-Arrange Us expanded the Mates Of State sound, moving beyond the organ-and-drums simplicity of early records and into something more layered and nuanced. Following up an inessential 2010 covers disc, Mates Of State returned with the 2011 LP Mountaintops, which shows even more polish thanRe-Arrange Us, the work of a once-rougher band that has gotten its indie-pop style down to a science.

Updated 02/08/2012