Kevin Bronson on June 7th, 2016

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As displayed on the 2014 EP “Ride It Out,” L.A.’s Wistappear doesn’t do anything by the indie-rock playbook. Songwriter Ian Lipson has a penchant for sonic whimsy, lyrical hyperactivity and, as the new single “Good Sign Bad Sign” attests, alliteration. The phrases “sneaky sinking cinnamon” and “might martyr marmalade” are nothing if not flavorful, though, and in the playful rhythmic context of the song — “a celebration of life’s utter unpredictability,” Lipson says — you get a sense of his millenial sensory overload.

It’s the first song from Wistappear’s long-in-the-works full-length, “Knack for Whatever,” a nine-song bricolage that was conceived in L.A., rehearsed and refined in Oregon and then finished in Athens, Ga., where Lipson and drummer Evan Jiroudek worked with producer/engineer Drew Vandenberg (of Montreal, Toro y Moi, Kishi Bashi). During their stay in Athens, they also collaborated with McKendrick Bearden (Grand Vapids) and John Fernandes (Olivia Tremor Control). All that sounds like a good sign, but as Lipson suggests in the chorus, a good sign in this day and age could very well be a bad sign.

||| Stream: “Good Sign Bad Sign”