In a Texas garage, scraping dried sweat off the body of a Stratocaster with a pick between takes, is how King’s Indian came into this world. Undeterred by baking heat and no air conditioning Robert Kubus (along with Collin Philips & Paul Jones) finished the overdubs and delivered them collaborator Daniel Blatney to master this debut LP.

With a voice that has been compared to Stephen Malkmus and Lou Reed and songs that could smuggle into a playlist featuring Uncle Tupelo, Dinosaur Jr. or any member of The Traveling Wilburys, Robert Kubus has made an argument that with enough creativity and do it yourself ethos, he could produce an album with polish and panache.

As a songwriter and lyricist Kubus hangs his hat on melody and wordplay. Maybe he could entertain the prospect of being a legitimate poet, but in his words, “songwriting is just more fun.” He offers a salvo of historic, literary, and various popular culture allusions and there’s probably not many who can juxtapose the Ken Burns National Parks miniseries along with the 2004 Detroit Pistons with deliberate sincerity.