Infinite Shuffle

Since I couldn’t make it to Austin for SXSW, I figured I’d seek out some bands playing one of the more trustworthy showcases — the Paste magazine party. That’s how I happened upon Thumpers, and it’s also why I finally decided to give Wild Cub a try.

I’d heard of the band once or twice, but I hadn’t listened to it — or so I thought. While jamming out to the 2013 debut album, Youth, I was searching for something that sounded similar in my iTunes library and discovered that I had previously downloaded it several months ago for my brother. Then I recalled him suggesting the band and telling me it was right up my alley.

Turns out he was correct.

Hopefully, I’m not the only person who immediately hears TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe when listening to Wild Cub front man Keegan DeWitt do his thing. The music is obviously different, but the voices are strikingly similar.

So, with that in mind, the best description for Wild Cub would be a synth-heavy indie-pop band fronted by a toned-down version of Adebimpe.

Throughout Youth, the band oscillates between an homage to ’80s synth-pop and something with a funkier, island-tinged sound. Besides the standout tracks that open the disc — “Shapeless”, “Colour” and the above hit “Thunder Clatter” — the other most notable point on the album is the coupling of tracks 6 and 7.

It starts with “The Water”, which sounds like a mash-up of TVOTR and The Cure. And that vibe continues on “Drive”, which is like a cover of a song that The XX wishes it had recorded.

The band formed after DeWitt, tired of Brooklyn’s high cost of living, relocated to Nashville in 2008 to focus on his music. He met multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bulluck, and they, along with Dabney Morris, Harry West and Eric Wilson, founded Wild Cub.

They have already performed at several prominent festivals, including SXSW, Bonnaroo and CMJ, as well as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year. So, with any luck, that is a sign of bigger things to come.