Say Whit?

Best known in the Austin music scene as guitarist for man-eating garage-punk mantises Sailor Poon, Madison Whitaker now comes into focus with the first recordings from her own project. Whit serves up an impressive, five-song set of asymmetrical art-rock with pop luster and prog impulses.

Wait, What? teems with ambition by the Houston-launched local fourpiece, fusing melodically agile vocals that project to the rafters with complex polyrhythms and veins of sparkling guitar. An emotionally-tangled indie debut and compositional petri dish for musicians citing both experimental pop outfit the Dirty Projectors and classic rock complicators Yes as influences, Wait, What? will appeal to fans of fellow Texan art-pop breakout St. Vincent.

Whit’s second pre-release single, shimmering rock track “My Bee,” stands among the EP’s most musically restrained and emotionally unchained tracks, examining the pain of relationships on both romantic and creative plains.

“The whole EP is really a tragic love story about the person that helped me start this project and the experience of being close to one person that you live with, work with, and create with,” Whitaker reveals of “My Bee.” “When you do that, there are all these seeds that are getting rushed into flowering, so it’s all about the process of that seed – it growing and dying – and how we each have a hand in creating something beautiful although causing destruction.

“‘My Bee’ is about being confused and in the darkness, and trying to figure out a way to get some light in there,” she continues. “The lyrics are about not knowing what’s real, what to do, how to not keep fucking up, and not knowing what the right thing is.”

Wait, What?, mixed by Daniel Chapman and mastered by Juan Pablo Mendez-Barjau, hits online platforms tomorrow, followed by a Friday release and band appearance at Austin’s Electric Church with Sam Chown of Zorch’s Shmu project, Mode Dodeca, and Imitari.

“My Bee” buzzes here: