The Riff Tiffs

Been meaning to add these folks for a while now, but I kept running into one big-ass stumbling block — how the hell do I describe ’em? The Riff Tiffs don’t really fit into any particular box, stepping easily from Secret Machines-esque spacerock to Explosions in the Sky instro-rock atmospherics to full-on retro-psych a la Pink Floyd (no, really) to straight-up early-’90s indie-rock that brings to mind early Spoon or Buffalo Tom to Bends-era Radiohead. They’re all over the damn place.

I guess where they really fit best is just in some kind of general “indie-psych-rock” category; no matter what they’re doing, the songs drift and swirl nicely, and the band doesn’t rock out so much as nod out (again, think Explosions in the Sky). Which is no bad thing, personally — the Tiffs are one of those bands to put on the CD player on hazy summer days when the world seems to move more slowly than it usually does. Just sit back and bliss out, I think that’s the key, especially given that the oblique lyrics rarely make much sense (at least to me). I have yet to see these guys/girl (the band’s comprised of brothers Chris & Curran Rehm on guitars, plus Sean Hart on drums and Althea Topek on bass) live, but dammit, I need to, and soon.

They’ve got two releases that I know of out so far, 2006’s self titled “dragonfly” EP, which is decently promising, and 2007’s Afflictinnitus, which takes that promise and carves into a beautiful gem of a disc. (I’d recommend the latter more than the former, honestly.) Per their Myspace page, they’re working on new stuff, so stay tuned.