Indie rock tragedy #65: when a band ferments in the hype machine so long that the buzz finally requires actual activity, and they fail to live up to the demands of the world that made them. Braids, a much hyped band, will not fall into this trap. Instead they have more than risen to the challenge. Native Speaker sounds like The xx with a mad crush on Tears for Fears and the Gossip all steeped in a rich tea of prairie aesthetic indefinable other than to say…vast. The point of this mixed metaphor is to say simply: Braids are one of the best new bands from our great country.