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The Story
Wye Oak is Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack of Baltimore, named after Maryland's former state tree. Live, they are a magic trick: Wasner sings and plays guitar while Stack plays drums with his feet and right hand and bass lines with his left — two people producing a band's worth of sound with nothing hidden.
Civilian (2011), on Merge Records, was the breakthrough — smoky, surging indie rock whose title track traveled far beyond the album, appearing in The Walking Dead. Then, instead of repeating the formula, Shriek (2014) removed the guitar entirely and rebuilt the band around bass and synthesizers.
The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs (2018) folded both identities together, and the compilation Every Day Like the Last (2023) gathered the singles that followed. The pattern is the point: every era of Wye Oak sounds like a band unwilling to coast.
Both halves stay busy beyond the duo — Wasner records as Flock of Dimes and joined Bon Iver's touring band as a guitarist in 2019 — and Wye Oak remains the home they keep returning to.
