Bound Stems

This young Chicago act maintain the dedication to instrumental texture foregrounded by Windy City post-rock acts like Tortoise and the Sea and Cake. (“Headphones, please,” Appreciation Nights’ liner notes ask, a request that pays off in “Pulling on Pigtails,” where a digitally processed drum beat establishes a herky-jerk groove beneath chopped-up vocal samples you can’t quite make out.) Yet the members of Bound Stems also pay homage to an older Chicago tradition: the noisy punk rock championed by Touch and Go. On their first full-length, the songs never lack for sonic detail — the inclusion of female vocals from Janie Porche are an especially nice touch within the boys’-club milieu — but they always sound determined to get somewhere, led by drummer Evan Sult’s propulsive rhythms, Dan Radzicki’s taut bass lines, or the intertwined fuzz of the three guitarists. The most compelling moments come when you hear half the band trying to plumb some little pool of sound while the other half tries to leave them behind.

Bound Stems + Rahim + Turn of the Century Cannons | Middle East upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | December 11 | 617.864.EAST