Wichita’s The Cavves are the foremost purveyors of landlocked surf music. 

Since 2016, Wichita’s The Cavves have served as the foremost purveyors of land-locked surf music. Packing an anthemic indie rock/pop wallop within a sun-soaked package of summery guitars, vibrant soundscapes, and an undeniable lyrical bite, the band oozes with character and creativity both on and off the stage. With two albums under its belt and an expertly honed live show (which has performed alongside Together PANGEA, Silvers Pickups, The Regrettes, Slothrust, and more), the quartet of Sophie Emerson (guitar, vocals), Matt Clara Bennett (guitar), Jackson Relph (drums), Justin Labadie (bass) has established itself as a staple in Wichita’s and the greater Midwest’s bustling indie music scene. 

Despite the sunny exterior of its songs, The Cavves imbue its music with profound thematic depth, giving its body of work thus far (2017’s Learn To Swim and 2019’s Venture Out) this duality of being both playful and far-reaching, telling tales of frustration with religious institutions, depression, grief, and friendship. Now as an act wise beyond its years and bearing a crystalized idea and ethos of what makes The Cavves the band it is, the Wichita four-piece returns with its third LP, Settle Down In A Guest Bedroom, serving as a bookend to the act’s formative years and ushering in a new, more mature chapter for the quartet. 

Settle Down In A Guest Bedroom preserves the generally upbeat core sound of The Cavves but injects into that core formula a wisened, arguably exhausted aura of reality to the equation, heard in the band’s adoption of a more indie-rock adjacent sound. On this latest LP, The Cavves approaches the subject matter of growing up and the challenges that come with it from the standpoint of processing these experiences and grappling with the scars and exhaustion they bring. Whether it be relationship troubles as depicted in opener “I’m Not Mad Anymore,” the bleak, expendable nature of the job market described on “Mavericks,” or the pain of grieving a loved one on “Guest Bedroom,” The Cavves confront these topics with its signature gusto with a more grounded, vulnerable perspective courtesy of their growth as not only artists but as people. Growing up isn’t easy, especially when factoring the litany of ugly realities of the world that are brought to light with it. With Settle Down In A Guest Bedroom, The Cavves acknowledges and illustrates the arduousness of these struggles with equal parts wit and wisdom, offering some sort of haven to lay one’s head away from the world’s troubles.