Wavves - Wavvves

Wavves
Wavvves
(02.2009, Fat Possum)
RIYL = skateboarding, Blank Dogs, summer

It’s weird how certain bands collect descriptors. Wavves is a perfect example. You can’t read anything about this guy without reading about sundrenched beaches, surfing or the fact that he’s only 22 [gasp!]. It kind of sucks because now I can’t help but associate him with summer and it is way too cold outside to even start pretending that summer is around the corner. Well, for those of you that are in similarly freezing temperatures we are going to try to avoid those temperate Californian descriptors…mostly. On full length numero dos, not a whole lot has changed. Sure we’ve got an extra ‘v’ to grapple with, but as far as the muddled recording style that has turned Wavves from a ramshackle garage rock project into a ramshackle garage rock project inebriated on a bowl full of Starbursts and three jugs of Sunny Delight, nothings changed. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s great. The even greater part about it is that Wavves continues to prove that he has got a whole bunch more of those 8-bit mega-hooks that sent us adrift on that first record. The combination of Wavves’ simplistic pop genius coupled with his ill-managed feedback somehow conjures late-eighties-to-mid-nineties Saturday morning cartoons. I don’t quite know why. I mean can you imagine how messed up and awesome those toons would be backed by these tunes? Someone mash it up for me on Youtube because I’d like to see it. Wavves cover photo for Wavvves and Wavves probably doesn’t help either. Man skateboarding in the early nineties must have been gnarly. I can only imagine. So there you have it: endless hooks, endless distortion, endless quasi-nostalgia-flashbacks-on-meth, all good. Now if only Wavvves could defrost my windshields when I leave for work…

-Lil' Thistle