Los Angeles indie rock band Esquimaux return after seventeen years with Bricks and Bones, a piece that allows their past and present to occupy the same recording. Originally begun in 2008 as a follow-up to the Steve Albini-recorded Tiger EP, the unfinished track remained shelved until the band reconvened in 2026.
Rather than starting over, Esquimaux braided tape artifacts from the original demo into their new sessions. Fragments of the group they were during their mid-2000s Hotel Café period now coexist with performances by the musicians they have become, creating a literal sonic bridge across the hiatus.
The blend of dreampop textures, shoegaze warmth, and lo-fi immediacy gives Bricks and Bones a distinctly recollective quality, as though the song were reconstructing the past as it unfolds. It commemorates the decision to continue, but it also preserves everything that prevented its earlier completion.
Formed in 2004, Esquimaux centers on Heather Brown Dodge, formerly of Gary Jules and the Group Rules, Graham Dodge of Your New Parents, and producer and multi-instrumentalist James Sajor. Taking their name from the film Heathers (1989), the band draw on a scene in which an underlined word in Moby-Dick is granted far more significance than it was ever intended to carry. The resulting confusion reflects the film's fascination with projection, misunderstanding, and the search for meaning where none may exist.
ZR