The Garden

West Coast bass-and-drums punk duo the Garden ascended within the idiosyncratic, low-fidelity orbit of Burger Records through eccentric cassette releases such as 2012’s Everything Is Perfect and 2013’s The Life and Times of a Paperclip, later securing a contract with Epitaph Records and wider visibility via 2018’s Mirror Might Steal Your Charm and 2020’s Kiss My Super Bowl Ring.

Raised on the hardcore sounds of Saccharine Trust, the Minutemen, and Killing Joke while embracing the eccentric in-joke sensibility shared by Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants, and Ween, twin brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears formed the Garden at age 19 in their native Orange, California. Following their exit from earlier project M.H.V. and a short modeling stint for Yves Saint Laurent, the pair committed to working as a duo, with Fletcher handling drums—recognizable by his blonde hair and routine cross-dressing—while Wyatt supplied vocals and bass. Their first cassette, Everything Is Perfect, appeared in 2012; the subsequent summer brought both The Life and Times of a Paperclip and the EP Rules, the initial pair issued on Burger Records. Around the same period Fletcher launched mostly electronic solo work as Puzzle, and Wyatt began the synth-and-bass endeavor Enjoy. Extensive touring took the Garden through Tokyo, the United States, and Europe in 2014 and 2015. In fall 2015 they delivered the freewheeling, 17-track electro-punk album Haha under joint Burger and Epitaph auspices. Their self-produced Epitaph successor, Mirror Might Steal Your Charm, surfaced in 2018 with a modestly more guitar-oriented approach. After teaming with Mac DeMarco for the 2019 single “Thy Mission,” the brothers issued the characteristically irreverent Kiss My Super Bowl Ring in early 2020, which included appearances by Ariel Pink and Le1f alongside additional contributors.