credit: Ida Muhonen
Library Card
Expressive yet thoughtful, abrasive yet melodious: Rotterdam’s Library Card are a band of contrasts. This is reflected in the group’s structure, the band being a tight-knit unit of four entirely different characters. The quartet started out in 2021, and it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to state that a little part of that period’s agitation has latched itself to the band’s music, which restlessly fluctuates from angular post-punk to magnificent post-rock and fast-paced garage. Even in a city that’s known for its wayward guitar music, Library Card has quickly become a standout.
Spearheaded by Lot van Teylingen, whose spoken word alternates between sardonic and sincere in a matter of seconds, Library Card leave a lot of room in their music in which their members can manifest themselves equally, from Emre Karayalçin’s unorthodox, eye-catching rhythms to Kat Kalkman’s driving bass lines and Mitchell Quitz’s seemingly shape-shifting guitar performances. To call each of them a cog in a machine would do a disservice to Library Card’s humane outlook on what being in a band means, but it’s simply impossible to elevate one element of their spellbinding songs above another.
Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.