Righteous Indignation

Tune-Yards—the music project of Merrill Garbus ’01 and Nate Brenner—is back with its fifth studio album, sketchy.

The band passionately takes on major issues of the day with music that reflects its signature lo-fi, groove-laden pop-punk—this time with a dash of R&B and ’60s soul. On the lead single, “nowhere, man”—an infectious anthem decrying the 2019 Alabama abortion ban—Garbus sings, “If you cannot hear a woman then how can you write her song?” The reviews have been great, with Rolling Stone praising Garbus’ “incisive songwriting” and NPR Music declaring the album “epic, weird and wild … just really vibrant.”

SKETCHY.
Tune-Yards (Merrill Garbus ’01)
4AD, March 2021

This story appears as part of the Smithies Create column in the Summer 2021 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photograph by Pooneh Ghana