Snocaps. Photo by Chris Black.
Allison and Katie Crutchfield first began collaborating at home in Birmingham, Alabama as young teens. In a 2006 documentary about their first band the Ackleys, 17-year-old Allison discussed the future of the band. “I see it going on forever, of course,” she said in now-deleted footage. Another band, P.S. Eliot soon followed while both sisters started solo projects; Allison as Swearin’ and Katie’s Waxahatchee. Though the pair have gone in different directions, Allison now works behind the scenes at the indie label Anti- while Waxahatchee’s 2024 album Tiger’s Blood was Grammy-nominated, it was inevitable that they would one day return to one another’s company.
Snocaps, then, is both a new project and the continuation of a two decades long musical relationship. Joined by collaborators Brad Cook and MJ Lenderman, the sisters swap lead vocals throughout with Allison singing from a position of strength while someone close to her falters. It’s there in “Coast” (“Give me shit while you can’t see straight”) and “Heathcliff” (“When you go down / You’ll take me down with you”) with her tumultuous experience possibly explained by the time the optimistic and surprisingly rousing “You In Rehab” ushers in the closing of the album. Katie, meanwhile, continues to mine the seam that has made her one of indie rock’s most engaging and illuminating songwriters. “Wasteland,” a song about realizing you are the crazy one, could have easily made it onto Tiger’s Blood while “Doom” is a gothic and folky break-up song that references plays by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams over the top of Lenderman’s scratchy 12-string guitar.
It doesn’t seem that Snocaps was built for the long-term. The band is due to play a short run of live shows towards the end of the year with no plans in place for 2026. There is something refreshing about this approach that is reflected in the album. Creating for fun and not obligation. When music can often feel like it exists only to prop up a lucrative tour offer or as a contractual duty, here are two artists in it for the love of the game, and one another. Snocaps may well ebb away, but you can rest assured that the Crutchfield sisters will find each other somewhere down the line.
