Tag Archive for 'woods'

After a slew of 7″ releases (notably Beach Demon / Weed Demon) the time has come for San Diego’s Nathaniel Williams, aka Wavves, to go the way of the LP. Serving bedroom-produced helpings of crusty beach pop on his sophomore album Wavvves (De Stijl Records) due out February third, you can’t help but want to hit the ocean…even in these sub-twenty February days. Before you throw on your North Face swim gear, lets recap: Wavves (two v’s) is releasing Wavvves (three v’s), the follow up to last year’s self-titled debut Wavves (two again). Got it?

There is never a moment of clarity in this nearly 30-minute intimate jam, but Williams offers plenty of vivid moments. “No Hope Kids” calls upon catchy falsetto-vocal hooks fusing characteristics of The Beach Boys to the more contemporary noise-driven sounds of Los Angeles’ No Age while “So Bored” offers childhood reminiscence in a familiar way that will surely make its way onto playlists and mixtapes all year, “Those feet were tired, as my hands get bored, went jeans to shorts, I’ll do no chores, I’m so bored.”

Wavvves, calls into question the future of rock ‘n’ roll: Will the evolving sounds of today’s youth pull towards the vintage appeal of Pet Sounds, or stray towards the experimental whether it be dosed with Animal Collective or Deerhunter. While many tracks are undoubtedly meant for those sunny beach-crunk-and-a-blunt days, others are purely distorted for distortion’s sake (“Killr Punx, Scary Demons”). As Impose Magazine’s Blake Gillespie so delicately put it, “every track pushing into the red is never going to save rock ‘n’ roll.” Williams has the attention of the blogosphere on his shoulders and with the start of his first US and European tour there is no bigger question on everyone’s mind than if Wavves can live up to his tidal buzz in 2009, or only leave a ripple.

I caught Wavves yesterday at the Underground Lounge with Woods for Barnard’s day of music and must say that after speaking to Williams and seeing him play, I am not only impressed by his talent but his character. He should be landing in Ireland in the next few hours to begin his European tour, I wish him the best and if you have the chance I urge you to catch him live. The music becomes much cleaner, upbeat and offers more sound variability than his albums do. It’s like watching vinyl come to life.

Wavves – So Bored
Wavves – No Hope Kids