A Deeper Understanding has already been hailed one of the year’s best rock albums. Some even see the band’s fourth LP as a possible way forward for the rock genre as a whole. It’s late Don Henley, Tom Petty, Rod Stewart in feel, but with frontman Adam Granduciel’s preeminent intricate production stamp.

This from a group who is becoming recognized for being a “band’s band”: i.e., this is who other musicians are listening to. What began as a collaboration between Granduciel and Kurt Vile in 2005 lead to debut album Wagonwheel Blues three years later. Vile left the band and Slave Ambient came out in 2011, though it was Lost in the Dream in 2014 that really announced Granduciel’s place in the rock genre.

Granduciel tells KFOG host Dayna that their fourth LP was influenced by two years touring for that album and playing live. “(It’s) more of a record that reflected where the ‘live’ thing was at.” It’s their first album for a major label (Atlantic Records), but the soul of the album comes from Granduciel’s prodigious attention to detail in arrangement:

“Granduciel’s work finds its meaning in the totality of its sound, in…writing and arranging and perfecting every detail in the studio…His way of understanding the world is to use that sound machine to excavate and explore his interior life and hopefully shape it into something listeners might understand.”

Granduciel Throughout his KFOG Private Concert, as he retunes his guitar, Granduciel keeps the audience more than entertained with stand-up comedic timing. On the band’s contribution to Grateful Dead tribute album Day of the Dead (organized by The National) “Touch of Grey,” he says: “I hear it sometimes in Chipotle. It sounds good.” Watch the full private concert and interview here.