Rock music history contains multiple instances of “origin story” coincidence. David Grohl began his career alongside Kurt Cobain in Nirvana. Ronnie Wood jammed with Rod Stewart before joining the Rolling Stones. Most famously, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page each honed their guitar playing in the same band, the Yardbirds. With the release of Epoch, a new box set of LPs, CDs, and a 114-page biography, we find a modern example of such overlap. DeYarmond Edison, a short-lived Wisconsin-based folk group established in 2001, served as the nurturing ground for Justin Vernon, Brad Cook, Phil Cook, and Joe Westerlund; Vernon later founded the Grammy Award-winning Bon Iver, while the other three went on to create the experimental psychedelic band Megafaun. Bon Iver and Megafaun have about as much in common, sonically, as the Foo Fighters do with Grohl’s former Nirvana. And yet an investigation into the early work of DeYarmond offers insight into the ultimate development of four genre-bending experimental artists. Plus, as a standalone album, Epoch is worth listening to. —Jack Sullivan

Available in a physical box set and on streaming platforms