BRIAN AUBERT (SILVERSUN PICKUPS)

CARRYING THE TORCH FOR GRUNGE ROCK.

THE HEYDAY OF grunge may be 30 years in the past, but the genre lives on in spirit and sound in Silversun Pickups. The L.A. quartet formed in 2000 as the sun set on alt-rock’s greatest commercial era, and then went on to revive the genre with their 2006 smash hit, “Lazy Eye.” From guitarist Brian Aubert’s superfuzzy guitar tone to bassist Nikki Monninger, Silversun Pickups might bring to mind the Smashing Pumpkins — they even recorded 2019’s Widow’s Weeds with Siamese Dream producer Butch Vig — but their influences go back much further. “I always think that because Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine exist, we are not weird,” Aubert said during their early brush with fame, in 2007. “We’re a pop band because of them.” Like Kevin Shields, Aubert imbues the band’s music with an atmosphere of psychedelic melodies and classic punk-influenced riffage delivered on a wave of fuzzy, textural guitars — typically an Epiphone Sheraton — through a battalion of effects pedals. “I and the rest of the band do like it when the guitar is used as a texture and less as a guitar in itself,” Aubert explained. “We like making the guitar sound like a keyboard a lot of the times.”

RECOMMENDED TRACK “PANIC SWITCH” (SWOON)