RIP Sic Alps. Pitchfork reports that the band announced their breakup last Friday during the final show of their latest European tour, so I guess we have to believe what they said. Though Sic Alps just released a 12-inch EP showing off their semi-live real-band chops for the first time (check out all three tracks here, here, and here), She’s On Top now serves as a coda to last year’s career-encapsulating/dramatizing self-titled LP. A sad turn of events, but also kinda fitting that the band who started out swiping Kinks riffs would finish up with an album suddenly gesturing toward rock opera.
Forming in 2004 with Mike Donovan and The Hospitals’ Adam Stonehouse at the helm, the project quickly became Donovan’s baby for five(ish) albums and a slew of 7-inches, dropping gems on Skulltones, Animal Disguise, Woodsist, Important, Slumberland, Siltbreeze, and finally Drag City. For a long while Matt Hartman was the Alps’ second half, and then the last couple years were a confusing blur of lineup changes (including Ty Segall, Noel Von Harmonson, Erase Errata’s Bianca Sparta, Douglas Armour, Eric Bauer, Barrett Avner, and Tim Hellman), but let’s be real: Sic Alps was Mike Donovan.
And that’s why you needn’t be sad! Mike is still here, he can’t break up with himself, and in fact he’s got a solo album called Wot all polished up for release on October 15 via Drag City! Plus he’s got a bunch of tour dates scheduled for August and September in typical on-to-the-next-tour fashion! So I’m not going to go into a big spiel about how underrated Sic Alps were and how they had incredible sound, hooks, fidelity, and songcraft; there’s basically another Sic Alps album coming in a few months.
• Sic Alps: http://www.sicalps.com
• Mike Donovan: http://www.dragcity.com/artists/mike-donovan
• Drag City: https://www.dragcity.com
More about: Mike Donovan, Sic Alps
