Sic Alps: Napa Asylum

Label: Drag City

Lazy, trippy and full of all-right-now kinda energy, Sic Alps slack their way back into our basement hearts with the acid sprawl of Napa Asylum, a 22-song album that clocks in at 47 minutes. Meaning, there's a lot to get tangled up in here. These Bay Area dudes know how to write a simple hook: "Cement Surfboard" shrugs together the coolest three-chord shimmy we've heard in ages, while "Do You Want to Give $$?" repeats its title mantra-like, hypnotizing you into giving money (whether you want to or not). "Trip Train" huffs along with a nimble guitar figure for propulsion, a tune you could noodle-dance to without shame, while several of the songs throughout settle into a sort of "do I have to put pants on today?" mellowness that glazes all of Napa Asylum (even as "Ball of Fame" marks a severe guitar experimentalism that goes down rough and awesomely). Sweet stuff, come on, have a sniff.