The Rosebuds

North Carolina indie-rockers The Rosebuds began as a cheery pop trio—a starting point that faded further and further from the horizon as the marriage between core members Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp crumbled. Howard and Crisp’s first post-divorce record, this summer’s Loud Planes Fly Low, actually salvages some of that bygone buoyancy, all the while contemplating what went wrong and what could’ve been. But by the time the album reaches the aching anthem “Woods,” Howard is crying “Oh good God” over a runaway wall of guitar, keys, and unexpectedly bouncy piano. It’s that kind of melancholy that undoubtedly attracted one of the group’s most outspoken fans, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who took the trio on tour earlier this year.

Updated 10/05/2011