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Bands Apart is a new weekly column wherein we outline the sometimes vast differences between bands with not-so-different names. Soak up this super important knowledge and we guarantee you’ll impress your friends, bore your mother, and alienate your dog. Up this week: Lazyeyes versus Wolf Eyes.

ORIGIN STORY
Lazyeyes: Brooklyn band, got together in summer 2012. Back in the day, you could catch them playing at Glasslands, the band’s favorite (dead) venue.
Wolf Eyes: Detroit by way of Ann Arbor, formed around 1997 “in the dead, dread-filled haunted hills of Michigan.”

SOUND
Lazyeyes: Indie-gaze, dream pop, music you’d catch casually floating around a BBQ.
Wolf Eyes: Noxious, pulsating electronic clashes rumble under rotten, hell-bound screams, while a guitar intermittently gristles and moans.  The “lyrics” are indiscernible for the most part (at their live shows anyway) but surely straight from the gut of Beelzebub. Tempo? What tempo?

INFLUENCES
Lazyeyes: The Cure and Deerhunter had babies and they play in this band. They’ve been known to cover Echo and the Bunnymen.
Wolf Eyes: Swans, Throbbing Gristle, the hopelessness of unrelenting Michigan winters.

ISMS
Lazyeyes: Generally the phrase “lazy eyes” consists of two words, not one. Nice try, guys.
Wolf Eyes: In a 2013 interview, John Olson declared that the band was embarking on their continuing pursuit of “trip metal,” a term they’re thought to have coined.

FAN BASE
Lazyeyes: The indie-DIY crowd, probably also fans of Frankie Cosmos. Craft beer, brunch, and Beacon’s Closet. They play the vinyl records on a turntable picked up at Urban Outfitters.
Wolf Eyes: Hoodies, silence, swaying, and head bashing. Accessories include long, unruly locks, cheap beer (a half pint of R&R means you just got your paycheck), cheaper cigarettes, and sunglasses at night. They might have a couple of busted up Wolf Eyes tapes, maybe. But generally they’ll stick to the live shows.

OUTPUT
Lazyeyes: They put out their New Year EP on their own and Wiener Records (Burger Records’ tape label) snatched it up right quick and reissued it earlier this year. Check their track “Fractals” below, a B side from the EP the band released earlier this summer.  We’re guessing a full-on album is on the horizon. In the mean time, Old Flame records released a limited edition split with The Teenage (Lazyeyes toured with the band this summer).
Wolf Eyes:  Their proper albums (i.e. not their close to millions of tapes and live recordings) are almost unrecognizable from their live show (remember their set at one of 285 Kent’s final shows?). You can (well, sort of) decipher the lyrics and the wall of discord is tampered down in favor of discernible drum beats and a guitar that actually sounds like it has frets. I Am A Problem: Mind In Pieces is out October 30 on Third Man Records — lend your ear to their single “Enemy Ladder” below.

ACCOLADES
Lazyeyes The Deli Magazine shouted their name from the rooftop, like, right after they put out their demos, adding Lazyeyes to their 2012 list of Best Emerging NYC Artists. When Burger Records caught wind of the band’s self-released EP New Year, they decided to re-release it on their cassette label, Wiener Records.
Wolf Eyes The band went from a Midwest noise band well known in the punk scene to the seminal noise band with their first Sub Pop release Human Animal, expanding their reaches far beyond the Detroit area and the music nerd set. In 2013, WE reunited after a hiatus, this time without OG members Aaron Dilloway and Mike Connelly, but with a new long-haired member, James “Crazy Jim” Baljo, another mainstay in the Michigan noise scene. This return solidified their shift to “trip metal,” a coveted award in its own right.

SEE THEM LIVE
Lazyeyes They wrapped up a tour at the beginning of August, so we’re not sure when we’ll get a chance to see the trio live again.
Wolf Eyes Their record release show, happening November 7 at Trans-Pecos, is gonna be nuts. Be there.
Correction: A previous version of this article improperly stated, Lazyeyes, “last proper release was 2013’s No Answer: Lower Floors (De Stijl).” The album was, in fact, a Wolf Eyes release.