Tri-State has been dealing its brand of guitar-based rock’n’roll since 2010. Combining pop hooks, vocal harmonies, driving beats, and intricate, intertwined guitars with intelligent lyrics addressing everything from the aftermath of maritime disaster to Detroit hipsters to the travails of parenthood to climate change, Tri-State’s music has been compared to Pavement, Guided by Voices, Built to Spill, Television, the Feelies, Dinosaur Jr., Eleventh Dream Day, Wilco, and early REM. The band’s new EP, Doom Loop, was recorded with Ray Ketchem at his Magic Door Recording in Montclair NJ as the world was shutting down in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic in February and March of 2020. The jangle-drone sound of “Drones (over Paterson)” reflects its title, and its lyrics capture the atmosphere of impending doom that characterized the recent past. The rollicking guitars of “A-Dog” bely its bittersweet lyrics; and “Aggressive Chapeaux” is an indie rock hate letter to those of who have done so much to lock us into the Doom Loop we have appeared to be caught in. Released at a moment of cautious optimism, Doom Loop is a (hopefully soon-to-be obsolete) reflection of a dark and turbulent time in which its three songs were conceived.