Wavves’ history is littered with low-grade dramatic stupidity and unexpected collaborations (MTV, Big Boi, Grand Theft Auto). It’s so much that you wouldn’t be kicked out of bed for thinking vocalist/guitarist/mastermind Nathan Williams was masterminding an extensive punking that, after the big reveal, saw Williams, Ashton Kutcher and Alan Funt emerge and break into a set of bastardized Dick Dale and Ween covers. Hell, a small corner of the internet (read: the Wavves Facebook page) is still losing its shit over the latest promo pictures of the band dressed like the Spin Doctors still sell records. Who’s to say chains, even if they be gold, shiny and hanging from around members’ necks, aren’t being yanked left, right and center?
However, even if we are being collectively yanked, you can’t deny that the yanking at the hands of V feels pretty good. (Minds out of the gutter, people!) Many complaints were launched after Afraid Of Heights sidled toward Green Day-ish punk. That idea will have holes poked in it with the razor-sharp guitar and its recall of twitching surf rock. Imagine Devo and the Ventures setting up face-to-face on Venice Beach à la Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time. Williams emerges from a cotton candy-colored yurt, counts the mess in, and it soars with the flanged guitars and sock-hop rhythms of “Heavy Metal Detox,” the wiry power pop of “Way Too Much,” and the infectious vocal lines of “My Head Hurts” slicing thin strips of the Ramones and basting them to quirky surf rock executed with no-consequences brattiness. Sure, it’s steeped in familiarity, but it’s also fun in the sun, and who cares if they end up with weird tan lines because of the backward baseball caps?
—Kevin Stewart-Panko
