Posts Tagged ‘Wavves’

A Year In… // Brief Recap

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

This past January marked my one year anniversary of running this site (well, taking into consideration my summer hiatus for my thesis, more like 6 months). What started out as a simple section on my personal google sites page while I was overseas for grad. school, PT Music has slowly morphed into a regularly updated assortment of posts with monthly readership in the thousands. While I would by no means classify it as a “successful” blog, the site is a testament on the connectivity of the 21st century and the smallness of the world nowadays.

At this time, I thought I would share some of the more popular things about the site over the past year in a nice little “in a nutshell” post.

Most Popular Concert Videos:
1st // Casiokids Live at Roskilde in 2008 (12,772 views)

2nd // New Song from The National (11,458 views)
3rd // MGMT performing “Weekend Wars” Live at Roskilde 2008 (7,719 views)

A bit surprising when I went to check the stats on my flickr page, but the most viewed concert photos by far were some terribly grainy shots I took at a Tegan and Sara show almost two years ago. Most likely due to getting picked up by some fan forum, it’s nevertheless still sad to see some of my better photo sets be dwarfed in comparison. Oh well!

Most popular Concert Photos:
1st // Tegan & Sara Live in Copenhagen (1,267 views)

2nd // Wavves Live in Munich (206 views)

3rd // Neko Case Live in Munich (64 views)

Most Popular Posts:
1st // PT Music’s Top 41 Albums of 2009 (1,526 page views)

2nd // Keyboard Sample Pad (1,322 page views)

3rd // Guest List: Burgers’s Top 30 Songs of 2009 (862 page views)

The next section I have no solid numbers on, but based on page views of track reviews as well as the number of referenced sites, I think I can gauge roughly which mp3s had the most downloads:

Most Popular mp3 Download:
1st // Moonface: Dreamland EP

2nd // Rainbow Bridge: Big Wave Rider

3rd // PT Music’s Laid & Paid Weekend Mix

Well that does it for the concise recap of the past year or so. Here’s to a musically prosperous 2010!!

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Posted in Musical Musings, Older Stuff, Site Issues | 1 Comment »

Babe Rainbow // Remixes

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

It takes a good DJ to whip up a remix that catches your attention, but it takes a great one to do it consistently. Take Vancouver-based Babe Rainbows (aka “Cameron Reed and his laptop”) for example. I remember hearing his name a lot this past summer when his murky suboceanic “Surf-Step Edit” of Wavves’ “Weed Demon” hit the blogs. I liked the track so much I put it on about half my mixes I whipped up last year.

Well Reed just put out a Stereogum-approved revamp of DOOM’s “Gazzillon Ear” which just might be some of his best work to date. With the number of remixes approaching “A Milli” territory, Babe Rainbow is able to rise above all the rift-raft by stripping the track down to just DOOM’s bone-chilling vocals and only adding a minimal amount of creepy instrumentals that are sure to make even Fever Ray squirm.

A recent Warp Records signee, Reed has his debut EP release, entitled Shaved, in less than a weeks time. If you have to get your Babe Rainbow fix now, check out his blog for some free tracks as well as ordering the Midnight Juggernauts 7” off of Acephale Records which features a B-side mix by him. To whet your appetite, here are Wavves and DOOM tracks:

DOOM // Gazzillion Ear (Babe Rainbow Remix)

Wavves // Weed Demon (Babe Rainbow Remix)

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Posted in Musical Musings, Track Reviews | No Comments »

Two for Tuesday // Covers Edition

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

It always seems like there is about ten times as much music out there than what you are able to listen to. Case in point, I stumbled across these two cover songs that were both released early last year and subsequently got lost in my mammoth music library. The first track is nice version of Wavves‘ classic teenage anthem “So Bored” by Ottawa/Bologna artist His Clancyness. I found out about the cover after listening to Mr. Clancy’s heart wrenching ballad “Mistify the Ocean” and decided to delve deeper into his music.

The second song I’m embarrassed I didn’t get around to listening to in ‘09 is from the critically acclaimed singer/actress Marianne Faithfull and is a cover of Neko Case’s “Hold On, Hold On”. Sung in a more sultry voice than Case, Faithfull dirties up the track giving it darker overtones than the original transforming the song into something you expect to be played in a hole-in-the-wall bar rather than world famous concert halls.

Check out both of the covers below paired with their originals:

His Clancyness // So Bored (Wavves Cover)

Wavves // So Bored (Live in NYC)

Marianne Faithfull // Hold On, Hold On (Neko Case Cover)

Neko Case // Hold On, Hold On

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Posted in Musical Musings, Slipped Through the Cracks, Track Reviews | No Comments »

Wavves // “So Bored” Live in Lisbon

Monday, February 1st, 2010

I think I’m one of the few still riding the Wavves train after his whole melt down in Barcelona, but seeing videos like this one filmed in Lisbon make up for all the ridicule I receive from my friends. In the video, Williams is joined onstage with his new band mates former Reatard members Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes and absolutely slays it. Possibly due to Pope’s addition, the song is sped up to warp speed, taking no prisoners in the process. Nonchalant as always, Hayes sits behind the drum set and tears through the faster tempo like it’s nothing. The Portuguese kids seem to be eating it up too: stage diving throughout, culminating in a mass rush to the stage before the song is over. All-in-all a great performance of a killer song.

[Courtesy: Nathan Williams blog]

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Posted in Musical Musings, Youtube Finds | No Comments »

Jack Reatard Gets New Band // Old Band Team Up With Wavves

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

If you’ve ever been to a Jay Reatard show, you know how incredible he is live. No banter, no lulls, and certainly no bullshit, Reatard (combined with bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes) rips through shows instead of just “playing them”. Well then came the infamous tweet (posted shortly after another free Jackpot record show) when Reatard indicated, in not so eloquent terms, that the band quit.

With European shows still scheduled, organizers scrambled to find replacements. Enter Danish punk band The Cola Freaks who, although I lived in Denmark for a year, I have never heard of. From the looks of a couple of youtube videos, Anders Thode and Jacob Elving just don’t have the pizzazz as Pope and Hayes. I mean look at this guy. Is this a face that is easily replaceable?

Fortunately, Reatard hasn’t lost anything in the transition. Here is a recent video of the new arrangement performing in London:



As for the former band, well it was just reported on pitchfork that they have joined forces with Wavves to make for an awesome trio. Yeah, I think Pope and Hayes made out just fine after the split…

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Posted in Musical Musings, Youtube Finds | 1 Comment »

WTF // Juavves

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

I guess it was only a matter of time before some Wavves offshoots would stop cropping up. Needless to say Mexico’s Juavves takes the cake when it comes to mimicking the original. The name, the song, and even the damn blog are all copyright infringed upon, but if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nathan Williams (aka the REAL Wavves) should be bowled over right now.

Right now there is only one song up on his myspace entitled “Muy Abburido” (translated: “Very Bored”) which you can stream here.

In other related news, Psychedelic Horseshit really hates Wavves and all of your favorite pansy-ass Smell lo-fi acts.

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Posted in Musical Musings | No Comments »

Wavves // Munich // February 17, 2009

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009


Last night I was able to catch a really good Wavves concert (with a great opening act Mondo Ray) that I wrote about for The Llano Idea. Here is an excerpt you can find in full here:

Instead of trying to recreate the cacophony of sounds associated with every Wavves song, Williams opted instead to sift his live music through a coarse audio strainer, leaving out the harshest of elements to better highlight the more melodic parts. Although noise punk purists would probably scoff at such a move, the clarity in sound made the vocals more distinguishable, allowing fans next to me to utter to each other “so THAT’S what he’s saying!”

There was no dull moment the entire show with Williams filling his 40 minute set with future hit after future hit. With Ulsh’s powerful drumming (especially on the catchy-as-hell opening), “So Bored” was the opposite of malaise – jolting the crowd out of their nonchalant funk. Williams went especially berserk on “No Hope Kids”, excitedly jumping around on stage and shouting used-to-be-truthful lines like “Got no job / Got no money” between pauses from headbanging. Although most of his songs center on high intensity and speedy tempos, Wavves isn’t a one-trick pony. Exhibiting his ability to slow it down, Williams shined vocally on “Weed Demon” – making his “oohs” and “ahhs” sound about ten times creepier live.

You can check out my photos and videos from the Wavves concert and also jam out to some tunes below.

Wavves // So Bored

Wavves // Wavves

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Posted in Concert Reviews | 1 Comment »