Doe

Bonding over shared admiration for acts like Sleater-Kinney, the Breeders, and Weezer, the London-based outfit Doe crafted hooky indie rock that surfaced via two concise releases during 2013. Their debut full-length, Some Things Last Longer Than You, arrived in 2016, while the follow-up Grow Into It came out two years later; the band’s last output proved to be an early-2019 rendition of the Cars’ “Just What I Needed.”

Doe coalesced at the start of 2013 after guitarist and vocalist Nicola Leel responded to an advertisement posted by Essex drummer Jake Popyura, who sought to assemble a group. The pair spent their initial half-year composing songs before recruiting guitarist Alex Sorenti to expand the arrangements. Soon afterward the limited-edition, five-track self-titled LP marked their first recordings, succeeded months later by the cassette Summer 2013 on their Keroleen Records imprint, which included a version of Pixies’ “Gigantic.” The remainder of 2013 found them performing across U.K. and European D.I.Y. punk and indie spaces, frequently alongside Jake Popyura’s other project the Exhausts, and issuing the track “Late Bloomer” that October.

Sorenti departed at the outset of 2014 and was replaced by Matt Sykes. The revised lineup embarked on another U.K. tour, issued the cassette Sooner, and collaborated on a split 7" with the Canadian band Taxa. In early October 2014, First Four—a collection of the group’s earliest material—appeared through Specialist Subject Records and Old Flame. Throughout 2015 the trio maintained a busy touring schedule in the U.K., opening for Dogs on Acid and Pity Sex while also headlining their own dates. They contributed to the four-way split EP Alcopop! vs. Dog Knights alongside Playlounge, Johnny Foreigner, and Doctrines, and released a limited lathe-cut 7" on Fierce Panda that paired a cover of Weezer’s “Susanne” with their own “Avalanche.” In August the band announced Sykes’s exit; after a short return by Alex Sorenti for several shows, Dean Smithers joined on guitar.

Early in 2016, Doe tracked their debut album at Leeds studio Suburban Home. The resulting Some Things Last Longer Than You emerged that September as a co-release on Specialist Subject and Old Flame. For the second album the group again worked with producer Matthew Johnson, frontman of Hookworms and member of Menace Beach and Martha. Grow Into It was issued in September 2018 via Big Scary Monsters and Topshelf Records, prompting tours through the U.K., Europe, and the United States that included support slots with Speedy Ortiz and Dilly Dally.

On Valentine’s Day 2019, Keroleen Records and Big Scary Monsters released the pairing of Grow Into It’s “Team Spirit” with the Cars cover “Just What I Needed,” which became the band’s final recording. Doe concluded their run with a farewell performance in London on September 7, 2019.