Piroshka Wields Political Discourse And Dreamy Guitars

A brickbat is something to wield: a rock, or a biting remark. It's also the name of the debut album by the British band Piroshka. Led by Miki Berenyi of British shoegazers Lush, the band comprises musicians from a handful of acts that made their mark in the 1990s British indie-pop scene, including Berenyi's partner K.J. McKillop of Moose, Elastica's Justin Welch and Modern English's Mick Conroy.

On Brickbat, the quartet uses gentle vocals and dreamy guitar pop to take on some very contemporary concerns, among them income inequality, school shootings and Brexit. Berenyi and McKillop joined NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro to discuss the role of politics in their music as well as their home lives; hear the radio version at the audio link, and read on for interview highlights.