Land of Pines has the kind of idiosyncratic back story that makes music critics salivate. The local band is the project of childhood friends Evan Easthope and Kessiah Gordon, with Gordon taking a year off from NYU to play in the band, and their latest EP, 1, was recorded Bon Iver-style in a yurt in the San Juans. The music is cathartic, catchy indie rock (a la The Lonely Forest) mixed with Easthope and Gordon’s boy-girl vocal harmonies—and lately, it’s been paying dividends: the band played the EMP’s Sound Off! Competition in February and recently opened for the likes of The Rural Alberta Advantage and Starfucker. In a live setting, Land of Pines plays with energy and confidence that belies their relative youth, leaving the critics drooling for entirely different reasons and proving that good music always beats a good story. With Cataldo, Kaylee Cole, The Glass Notes. ANDREW GOSPE

Sat., April 30, 9 p.m., 2011