Silversun Pickups

About

Also known as: SSPU

Few bands capture that hazy, distorted Los Angeles dream quite like Silversun Pickups. Formed in 2000 and rooted in the Silver Lake music scene, the quartet of Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao, and Joe Lester built their sound around layered guitars, swirling keys, and that signature shoegaze blur. Their 2006 debut Carnavas put them on the map fast, with "Lazy Eye" and "Well Thought Out Twinkles" both cracking the Billboard Modern Rock top 10, and "Lazy Eye" even finding its way into Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. Their 2009 follow up Swoon landed at number 7 on the charts and earned them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, which caused a minor stir given how established they already were. They kept building from there, releasing six more albums through 2022, with the most recent being Physical Thrills. The 2019 single "It Doesn't Matter Why" showed they hadn't lost any of that dense, melodic drive that made them a staple of alternative rock.