Something made me give another listen to Wavves’ breakthrough album again yesterday, and it was undoubtedly the weather. A bright beautiful day and I thought, gee what would go well with this unseasonal sun? I concluded Wavvves was the answer, the album by Wavves (yeah I want to punch him too for all the v’s). Mixing lo-fi production with surf rock anthems and post-punk freak outs, the album is really something else, a sort of what if the Jesus and Mary Chain played surf rock with punk attitude. The first thing you will notice about Wavves is how god awful loud it is. I mean really, having a song of his from this album come up on shuffle through ear buds is like being slapped in the cochlea. Of course his most recent release King of the Beach is better balanced and less ear splittling than Wavvves, but cleaning blood off of your head phones is all part of the charm. Nathan Williams, the mastermind behind the group was a slacker nobody before being thrust into the spotlight, having recorded this Wavvves and its predecessor Wavves within four months of each other. The original Wavves was released only on cassette, and both albums feature grainy photos of Williams skateboarding. Those last couple of sentances should have given you a good sense of what Williams is all about, fun surfer punk, with a I don’t even care enough to be angry attitude. The track of the moment today, No Hope Kids highlights these elements. Williams just lists things that he does not have including but not limited too a car, a family, a God, a girlfriend, you get the idea. And while that may sound sad, Wavves never really sounds anything more than annoyed, like someone who would write off their problems with the word bogus.
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