Covet is the baby and brainchild of guitarist and songwriter/composer Yvette Young, conceived as a sort-of-rebellion against and simultaneously an extension of her classical roots. The band was founded in the Bay Area, California, with the intention of fusing lush post-rock soundscapes with the more intricate elements of progressive music, with melody and emotion at the forefront, evolving with each release. The name came from Yvette’s love for the band Basement, as well as a fondness for the meaning of the word: to want something really badly, which is what the whole creative process feels like to her: a sort of
yearning.

Last summer, after living across the country from each other for several years, the four members of
Anamanaguchi decided to try something new. Their label Polyvinyl had rescued the famed American
Football house from potential destruction, so the band took the opportunity to move in and write together.
Over the course of a month, Anamanaguchi – pioneers of hyper-melodic 8-bit rock, whose extraordinary
ascent has led them to topping charts with a virtual pop star – flipped their typically meticulous digital
process on its head. The result is Anyway. Written in the converted living room-turned-practice space,
Anamanaguchi walked away with the most personal record of their career. And it's a rock record for the
ages.
“Crazy sounds come from normal-looking houses,“ notes singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Berkman. “We
made the decision to be physically in the same room for nearly every step, writing everything as a group
instead of editing and tweaking files over the internet.”
The band brought these demos to Grammy-winning rock producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips,
MGMT, Sleater-Kinney), whose old school approach drove the point home. Once again staying under the
same roof – this time at the Fridmann family’s cozy Tarbox Road Studios in western New York – they
recorded Anyway straight to tape, uniting around live instruments and lyrics sung by everybody in the
band. Fridmann encouraged live tracking and spontaneous performances, which were shaped by Luke
Silas’ propulsive drumming. The album’s analog sound comes in part from their search for vintage gear,
including an extremely rare set of Marshall guitar cabinet speakers from the late-1960s – previously used
on recordings by Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, Nirvana, and Weezer – that give Berkman and
co-guitarist/vocalist Ary Warnaar their distinct sound. “Every detail came from this need to do it right the
first time,” Berkman notes about this significant shift for such consummate tinkerers. Adds bassist/vocalist
James DeVito, “This time there was no undo button, no alternate versions. The decisions had to be made
before, not after.”
At first, Anamanaguchi aimed to explore rage as the record's main theme, reflecting the various
frustrations of the world. But quickly they found themselves distracted by having fun together, and Anyway
instead captures a band creatively and personally energized: the experience of four best friends reviving
their connection in a disconnected world. As Anamanaguchi has always been an instrumental band, the
decision to sing suddenly confronted them with the question of what the band’s voice would ultimately be.
They explore this newfound power in every song, making it their most emotionally resonant work yet.
"The overarching theme of [USA] was about a voice forming and learning how to speak–a kind of artificial
one. Anyway is the next step – it’s about discovering the band’s voice,” Berkman explains. “There’s a
now-or-never feeling to it, a kind of ‘why not.’ Loss is a part of life, no one is immune to it. There’s that Phil
Ochs song ‘When I’m Gone:’ ‘you won’t find me singin’ on this song when I’m gone, my pen won’t pour a
lyric line when I’m gone, so I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here.’ We’re making the most of our lives
and what we love doing which happens to be writing, playing, and singing music all together.”
Anyway has moments of anger, love, humor, paranoia, and sadness – but the band’s sense of
light-heartedness shines through. On “Rage (Kitchen Sink),” the band confront loneliness and boredom,
two epidemics of the digital age that seem to be humanity’s only common bond. The anthemic, fuzzed-out
“Magnet” is about the surreal attraction that’s possible between two people – a feeling echoed by the
combination of such a heavy track with delicate lyrics. The power-pop ballad “Darcie” finds inspiration in
small gestures from a local unsung hero, who brightens their lives and allows unforeseen amounts of fun
to happen. Taut and dynamic, “Buckwild” is a rock sing-along that serves as the album’s genesis story: a
band making an effort to do something new, while accepting the risks that may bring.
Formed in New York in the mid-2000s, Anamanaguchi made their name with emotionally-charged
turbo-electric experiments in chiptune. Known for programming their early music on Nintendo cartridges
you can actually play, their accomplishments include scoring Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and

launching one of music’s most successful crowdfunded projects to this day with their Kickstarter for their
debut album Endless Fantasy. The band’s reputation for innovation grew worldwide, leading them to
develop and release their own experimental video game (Capsule Silence XXIV), as well as to officially
collaborate and perform with the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku on her hologram tour (their collaborative
hit “Miku” is not just her biggest English language song to date, it’s also recently a prominent music fixture
of Epic Games’ global smash hit Fortnite). They even launched a pizza into space.
[USA], Anamanaguchi’s critically-acclaimed second album and debut for Polyvinyl, anticipated a crucial
cultural shift in moving from escapist, nostalgic fantasy to a more introspective exploration of digital
identity. Described by Pitchfork as the band’s “most emotionally grounded record,” [USA] laid the
foundation for the openness and honesty that defines Anyway. Where [USA] made sense of life online,
their third album Anyway ventures into the world outside the front door.
Anamanaguchi’s greatest strength isn’t their devotion to doing things differently, or their ability to translate
net-life into emotionally resonant tunes – though they are incredible at both. It’s the way their actual,
enduring friendships have allowed them to evolve together. “We’ve always stretched the limits of what
counts as ‘being a band’,” says Warnaar, “but Anyway honors that special glue that’s kept us together all along."