If you were to draw the Philadelphian musician Kurt Vile in silhouette, he would be immediately recognisable. Standing in front of a magnificent fabric mural, themed around his 2022 album (watch my moves), the guitarist’s long, wavy hair hangs in curtains around his face as his eyes cast intently downwards at a succession of instruments. In a plaid shirt and worn jeans, he is both a cartoon of every distrait American guitar player from Neil Young on down through the slacker era – and yet somehow still singular in his rumpled but unruffled air. His moves, meanwhile, are crab-like; his shakes of the head, staccato.
Likewise, Vile’s sprawling music tilts at a panoply of greats. There’s Young, of course, and Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, plus indie rock forerunners such as Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis. But his songs remain instantly spottable in a lineup of drawled psych-rock – beautiful and tuneful, as well as gnarly and inward-folding.
