Album Review

Back in the early 90’s, bands like Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, and Pavement rocketed to semi-stardom on the backs of lo-fi recordings. Albums such as Bee Thousand, Slanted and Enchanted, and Sebadoh III reeked of fuzz, tape hiss, and shoestring budgets and the masses ate it up. Of course lo-fi has been around for ages in one form or another, from the late 70’s/early 80’s work of bands like The Swell Maps and The Clean, or simply in the form of demos. The collected work of The Beatles, which formed the foundation for their Anthology releases in the 1990’s could probably be considered the most successful lo-fi recording package ever, proving that song production is only one component in what constitutes a magical musical moment.

In fact, with lo-fi not only do you get the songs, but you get the built-in nostalgia as well. It is the sonic equivalent of sand-blasting a pair of Converse All-Stars and declaring them “vintage.” Similar to how that Super-8 footage of Winnie and Kevin drew viewers to The Wonder Years, fuzz and crackle still draw ears to indie rock.

And what’s really funny is that many of these newer bands awash in this sound, lovingly christened “ShitGaze,” are probably capturing it minus cassette four-tracks. These days you almost have to go out of your way to make a bad recording with how clean the digital recording software can capture a signal. Well I guess if you’re using Radio Shack mics straight into Garageband…

Okay, I digress. The topic at hand here is 22 year old Nathan Williams and his latest contribution to the modern lo-fi movement via his one man band, Wavves.

What surprises me most about his latest album, Wavvves, is how many people are referring to it as some sort of “sunny beach pop album.”

Huh?

This is a sunny, beach pop album…on peyote. Yes, there are some vibrant melodies and pop nuggets to be found on this release, but they are buried beneath so much harsh sounding fuzz that it’s tough to confuse this with a Teenage Fanclub or Beachwood Sparks album. What this really sounds like is a slightly more straight-forward pop version of No Age. Or, even better, slightly experimental indie rock drenched in digital fuzz.

Luckily, Nathan has the world’s greatest fallback, he’s a great songwriter. Plus his youth has filled this album with energy, a component painfully absent from many of his peers’ releases. It’s nice to hear a kid rocking out again!

He does throw out a bit of curveball with the opener, “Rainbow Everywhere,” though. In fact this synth heavy, noise intensive intro reminded me a lot of Grandaddy, which is funny since ex-Grandaddy ringleader Jason Lytle and Williams both share skateboarding backgrounds. In fact, the more I listened to this album, the more the Grandaddy (especially early Grandaddy) comparison seems to fit.

So after “Rainbow Everywhere” the album blasts straight into the garage-rocker “Beach Demon.” The third track, “Too the Dregs” is a definitive highlight with some soaring background ooh’s and ah’s. A couple tracks later those addictive ooh’s and ah’s return on another gem, “So Bored,” which sounds like the same type of power-pop Jay Retard has been dabbling in lately. And I gotta say it, it sure would be great to hear at least a mid-level production attempt at this song. Sure the fuzz is charming, but this could be a straight-up anthem if it was given the right treatment. The remainder of the album follows the same patterns, bouncing between straight-up rock and experimental excursions.

Luckily Nathan has picked up a drummer and is currently touring as Wavves. Of course a bass player and keyboardist couldn’t hurt either, but I guess you have to start small. On record you will continue to get the lo-fi goodness, while live, the band’s rocking side will slowly allow the best material to fully bloom. Either way it looks like we have yet another lo-fi monster on our hands, and at such a young age, Nathan Williams and his Wavves most likely still have their most intriguing work slowly churning, far out at sea.

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