Wavves - King of the Beach

I'm completely skeptical of hype yet I'll give anything a chance. I try not to let the hype get to me. Kind of like when Kobe Bryant would constantly get asked about the levity of playing in such a classic series such as the Lakers vs. Celtics rivalry. He would constantly tell everyone that it really didn't matter. Doing so helped him think clearly about the objective. I did the same for Wavves. When I first started hearing about Nathan Williams, some of my friends would say that his previous band, Fantastic Magic was better although Wavves to them was good. Others would say the opposite. It's strange to think that the same person who is doing Wavves, a Cali-punk band doing songs obviously influenced by the place he lives, San Diego, was doing music much closer to Devandra Banhart. Then again, I shouldn't think it to odd.

I wasn't instantly floored by Wavves when I first heard them. In fact, I was kind of talking shit. Saying things like "the lo-fi sound is great for the album but I wonder if he could pull off these songs and make them sound interesting live". Lo-fi albums can run the risk of not delivering live. For instance Best Coast and Vivian Girls. The only way I could ever prove or disprove this thesis would be to go to one of their shows. I finally saw them live and was impressed. Yet how can he follow this up? I was very excited when I heard the track Cool Jumper that Nathan Williams did with Zach Hill. It was a sonic leap forward. Very unexpected for those not familiar with Zach Hill's body of work. Then came along Jay Retard's old backing band.

Jay Retard's old backing band joined Wavves leaving me a bit disappointed. I really wanted to hear more of what Zach Hill brought to Wavves. I felt like he was going to slide back into what was familiar. Little did I know that King of the Beach was going to be a pure pop magic. Nathan ups the pop ante by weaving in some Cali influence a'la Beach Boy/Brian Wilson instrumentation while still keeping enough punk to keep it raw enough for even the most skeptical, such as me. Thank you Wavves for providing me with the soundtrack to Summer 2010. Check out the live stream of King of the Beach on Fat Possum Records.