Ovlov

Combining the overloaded guitar attack and rhythmic power of vintage Dinosaur Jr. with the winsome songcraft of Built to Spill, the Connecticut band Ovlov revolves around the dynamic guitar heroics and emotionally true vocals of Steve Hartlett. The group launched with promising EPs in 2009 and 2011, and exploded with the 2013 album Am, which helped the band become a popular under-the-radar alternative to the polished emo scene of the time. Soon afterward, however, the band cracked under the pressure, both internally and externally, and Hartlett formed the group Stove. The break didn't last long, though, and Ovlov returned to the fray in 2018 with their second album of guitar heroics and melancholy, TRU, then dialed into a poppier sound on 2021's Buds.