Send "Wavves " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 In the world of independent music, learning on the job is frowned upon. It's easier than ever for kids to make professional-grade records and have them heard, but any sign of weakness-- a lackluster stage show, a questionable interview, a dud follow-up-- and listeners will let you know how duped they feel. Few people know this better than Nathan Williams, who made his buzzy second album Wavvves at his parents' house and spent the rest of 2009 on a badwill tour (live disaster, canceled tour, fistfight) that earned him Lohan/Hilton-levels of derision in certain circles.But some stuck with him, like Best Coast best bud Bethany Cosentino, the late Jay Reatard's backing band, and esteemed producer Dennis Herring. If you include yourself in that group, new album King of the Beach rewards your belief. The album's title may be something of an ego-fueled joke on indie's ongoing infatuation with seaside fantasy, but Williams is still very much a part of the world he pokes fun at. Though the scorched-earth production of Wavvves was pretty much the opposite of chillwave, it did share themes, embracing weed, nostalgia, and both music-making and the outdoors as ideal escapes from early-20s boredom and a depressed job market. In its quest for an endless summer, King of the Beach wears its California lineage with pride. It's major-key and resplendently colored, owing as much to Orange County skate-punk as it does to the Beach Boys. In the past, Williams' 1960s fixation mostly manifested in some falsetto Brian Wilson oohs and ahs, and that's still his go-to hook. But the references here are drawn from an exponentially wider palette: The twinkly, lovelorn "When Will You Come" uses the evergreen "Be My Baby" beat, while "Mickey Mouse" cops from "Da Doo Ron Ron" and distills Person Pitch to a three-minute essence. The charm is hearing Williams going directly to the sources of his inspiration, whether it's the warped synth lope of "Baseball Cards" or the jingle-like facility of "Convertible Balloon"....full text |
| Rawkblog |
| OK, so: I broke down and listened to this. Let’s start from the beginning. Wavves has a new album called King of the Beach. It has broader, psych-tinged arrangements, which surprisingly fit Wavves main dudde Nathan Williams a lot better than the caveman-punk shit he was wiping on walls before, though the same toilet bowl production style has improved only slightly since Wavvves. King of the Beach feels a lot like 1994: Weezer, Britpop, Bee Thousand. Just dumber, and filled with 1999 lyrics. (“My old friends hate me, but I don’t give a shit,” he sings, Fred Durst-like, in the otherwise Butch Vig-lite “Green Eyes.” ) If the early ’00s were about reclaiming the cool kid genres of the late ’70s and early ’80s — post-punk, New Wave — the early ’10s kinda seems to be about reclaiming the geekier radio rock of the ’90s in some misguided need to defend going through high school before the iPod era. (See also: Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Surfer Blood’s recent [ironic?] Lit cover.) Williams probably grew up smoking pot, flunking math class and listening to Green Day and Eve 6 and a borrowed, scratched-up Built to Spill CD on a Walkman with dying batteries. At times, this leads briefly to inspiration: “Green Eyes” is catchy enough and “Take on the World” is an Actual Jam, but it segues into useless psych carousel “Baseball Cards” and the self-aware, critic-baiting “Convertiible Balloon” (I think he might actually be singing “Blogging me down with your unbearable tune” in a song with an unbearable tune), not to mention the embarrassing Animal Collective-biting “Mickey Mouse” and — Christ. Sorry, guys — this is a lot more words than I wanted to write about Wavves this year (or ever) and I haven’t even made a poor taste Best Coast/”When Will You Come” joke yet. Let’s start over: Wavves has a new album. So does Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. That one’s better....full text |
| Yourstru |
| Wavves was the subject of the very first yours truly piece. Nathan was just about to start his first tour with former drummer, Ryan, when the pair packed their gear into the upstairs office space at Different Fur. It was their first time playing together. Working with Nathan again was like looking at the wall near your parent’s bedroom with all the sloppy pencil marks and scribbled dates charting your growth over the years; so much had changed since we last met, everything except Nathan, he’s still Nathan....full text |
Wavves lyrics
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