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Mapache, the California folk-rock duo consisting of high-school friends Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch, makes the kind of music that evokes leisurely, balmy summer evenings on the beach, where time slows to an unbothered stroll and the crashes of waves adopt a kind of pendulum’s lilt. Since discovering the band last year — it was “Life on Fire,” from their excellent sophomore album From Liberty Street (2020), that first grabbed me — their music has become a reliable tonic for the day’s stresses, an instant streak of sunlight that naturally succeeds George Harrison, the Flying Burrito Brothers, or the Everly Brothers at their breeziest.  

Named after Finch’s 14- going on 15-year-old Boston terrier, Mapache’s fourth album, Roscoe’s Dream, came out early last month, and marks their third release since 2020. Slouched over a conga drum, can of sparkling water in hand, Blasucci told me from the studio where he and Finch recorded the album that its then-impending release felt like a long time coming finally reaching its endpoint — an artifact of the past starting to feel “real” again now that press for the album has been ramping up. (425 spoke with Mapache about a week and a half before Roscoe’s Dream hit shelves.) 

Read the full feature on 425.