Permit

Bloomfield, Indiana native Drew Auscherman, frontman of Hoops, had previously played in the lo-fi guitar-pop outfit Daguerreotype alongside Jack Andrew. The pair launched Permit in 2016, deliberately departing from the bright, chiming indie-pop sound of their earlier project. Drawing instead on deep knowledge of classic rock—particularly Thin Lizzy’s interlocking guitar lines—they added layers of tape hiss and pushed tempos to frantic heights, forging Permit’s distinctive style. Because Hoops already had a deal with Fat Possum, the duo secured an outlet there; the label issued Permit’s debut single, Vol. 1, in December 2016. Its six tracks delivered fuzzy, high-volume lo-fi rock, yet the musicians refused conventional song titles, opting instead for simple numeric designations such as “Track #1” and “Track #2.”