James Supercave

Hailing from California, James Supercave fuses psychedelic rock textures with pop instincts to produce an artsy, hybrid sound that recalls Alt-J, Tame Impala, or MGMT. The band delivered its first full-length album, Better Strange, in 2016.

The trio took shape in Echo Park as the central project of vocalist Joaquin Pastor, completed by Patrick Logothetti on keyboards and Andres Villalobos on guitar; together they weave together disparate influences into grooves that feel both rhythmic and trippy, as well as soulful. Following their languidly sensual 2012 single “Georgian Orange,” the group issued its debut EP, 2015’s The Afternoon. Nested among the lo-fi indie-psych material was the expansive Baroque pop of “The Right Stuff,” a track that also appeared on the debut LP issued less than a year later. Better Strange represented a sharpened realization of the intricate style first sketched on The Afternoon, reflecting the group’s admiration for Radiohead, Bowie, Beatles, and Talking Heads while also nodding to contemporaries such as Tame Impala and Empire of the Sun. After touring the album, the musicians returned to the studio to begin work on new material. The earliest results surfaced in 2018 with “Something to Lose,” quickly followed by “Come Alone” and “Fools.” All three songs were collected on the band’s second EP, Alarm Will Sound, which appeared in early 2019.