Charles Leo Gebhardt IV

Charles Leo Gebhardt IV's Unfaithful EP (on local basement label GGNZLA Records) kicks off with the rousing "Look Out, Look In"—a sunburst of guitar, a stomp of drums, and Gebhardt singing, with an ever so slightly English affect, "Wake up, wake up, honey/You're gonna be late for the day/And what a fine day for love/Today could be." Throughout the EP, Gebhardt does a kind of backcountry ramble that's more British pastoral than Americana, an almost-folksy jangle plugged into an amp and electrified. "Lake Serene" is a driving escape marked by swerving guitars and piped in "woo-ooh" backing vocals, "Better at Love" is a domestically blissed-out daydream whose initial rockabilly guitar motif sounds like a Brian Setzer Christmas song (but it doesn't suck), "King of the Mountain" is an easy swaying ballad with a lightly galloping backbeat, and the album-closing title track is a weary coda, with just a faint echo of Nico's "These Days" to its descending central line. Fine stuff. ERIC GRANDY/the stranger



I edited my profile while drunk V4.4