Pygmy Lush

Emerging from Sterling, Virginia, the six-piece experimental outfit Pygmy Lush mixes punk, lo-fi, screamo, post-hardcore, and moody folk-rock in constantly shifting combinations. Johnny Ward, formerly of pg. 99, joined forces with that band’s other ex-members—the Taylor siblings Mike and Chris—plus Mike Widman and David Krepinevich to launch the group in 2005 once Malady and Mannequin had disbanded. Their first full-length, the volatile Bitter River, appeared on Robotic Empire in 2007. Scattered across Bitter River were fragments of the darker, far more restrained folk material that later filled the 2008 Lovitt release Mount Hope from the Washington, D.C. indie/punk imprint.