Video: Wavves Live at Santos Party House

One of the best things about the Wavves live show has always been watching Nathan Williams stumble through live versions of his music with the same I-don’t-give-a-fuck-but-actually-secretly-do-or-else-you-wouldn’t-be-listening-to-this attitude that exists in the margins of his recorded work. When he announced that technical drum beast Zach Hill would officially be a part of the band and then followed that up with a six(!) minute single, it seemed like Wavves was going to get real complicated real fast. Maybe that’ll be the case at some point in the future, but watching the pair slam their way through their set on Thursday night at Santos Party House was about balance. Hill bulldozed Williams’ earlier work, but the newer material is clearly something they’ve worked on together. Professional concert-goer/filmer Ray Concepcion, was, of course, on hand to capture the whole event. We saw him in the middle of the pit shaking his camera around like he was simulating the world’s largest earthquake. You’ll probably catch that in one of the three videos he filmed from the show. It’ll be just like you were there.

Read More

Chll Pll, “Dick Moves” MP3

Yesterday a CD came in the mail with blood red lava spit from the earth like a wave on the cover. Embossed in huge silver font is “ten rips by chll pll.” We were happy to find that the ten rips was just a claim, like “taste great, less filling,” and that the actual album was entitled the equally awesome Aggressively Humble, which would totally not be an apt way to describe how Chll Pll drummer Zach Hill (formerly still of Hella and currently of Wavves) completely demolishes sound waves on “Dick Moves.” At least until it turns into a new age track. Then he plays the cymbals really fast after that, which is cool. Also lyrics to this song are totally here today/ bone tomorrow. Here’s to a fruitful Labor Day weekend!



Download: Chll Pll, “Dick Moves”

Wavves, “Cool Jumper” MP3

Of course we are into this! Nathan Williams bka Wavves has been in the mag twice and writes a video game column called Sweaty Hands for this very site. Here he’s joined by Zach Hill, apparently a permanent edition to the one man band, and Williams goes fully nuts, utilizing all the stuff we love about his music: grungy guitars and that repeated falsetto wooOOOhhhhh to better effect than most of the other stuff he’s recorded to date. A dude in the office (who will remain nameless) just started clutching his face and went on a rant about how good this is, and we agree—minus the face-clutching. On the first several listens, it sounds like a pretty big step forward for Wavves. Also, this is website, we are just relying on pure feeling, people!



Download: Wavves, “Cool Jumper”

Advertisement

Konami Code Sweaty Hands: Resident Evil 5

For our new blog, Konami Code Sweaty Hands, Nathan Williams aka Wavves reviews the latest video games for PS3, XBOX360 and whatever other consoles he can get his hands on. In this installment: Resident Evil 5 for PS3.

Read More

Video: The Jesus Lizard Brightens Up Pitchfork Music Festival

We made it to Union Park in Chicago this past weekend just in time to catch a sideshow of indie rock babies, an unwelcome whiff of global warming, and of course, the 4th annual Pitchfork Music Festival. We spent most of the cloudy, spring-like weekend watching known FADER favorites The Very Best, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Wavves, Lindstrom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart etc, but the real highlight of the entire thing was The Jesus Lizard.

We’re not usually big on reunion shows or scrotal showcases, but David Yow brought back his intense, zig-zaggy stage swagger minus the “Tight and Shiny”— doing push-ups on stage, giving the audience hula lessons, spitting everywhere and diving into the audience within the first three seconds of the show—with grand mastery. We caught a little bit of it on our Flipcam—watch closely for some ancient hula styles and Yow’s tiniest fan taking stage diving notes from the sidelines.

Wavves, “Mickey Mouse” MP3

The tag to Nathan Williams most recent blog post—about finishing Resident Evil Vol 4000—is “I have no life.” This was also the apparent tag to every song he ever recorded, at least until he played them for other people, though he might say that driving forever, playing a show, drinking, sleeping maybe and repeating, is less of a life than an Xbox narrative. Maybe bored but not enough to write a song about it, Williams posted “Mickey Mouse,” an undulating, unused demo on his blog. It sounds like Panda Bear, the drums in Guitar Hero and spit.



Download: Wavves, “Mickey Mouse”

Advertisement

FEATURE: Dum Dum Girls Hits The Road

  • story Dee Dee
  • photo Justin Maxon

Since petrol prices are back on the rise and driving a car seems less cool than ever, we decided to send one of our favorite new artists and a trusted photographer on a road trip the length of California. Their purpose: to track the genealogy of the recent lo-fi, high melody takeover of the state’s guitar pop tradition. Read More

Video: Wavves, “No Hope Kids”

Turns out having an on-stage freakout means you get to premiere your video—unembeddable—on Rolling Stone’s site. Way to go Wavves! Anyway, here’s the video for “No Hope Kids,” featuring tour footage (also answering questions to an email interview) and lots of European good times all shot by director Pete Ohs. Wavves haters, who are you? This shit jams.

UPDATE: An embeddable video exists!

Freeload: The FADER Issue 62 Podcast

We and you and everyone we know has been trumpeting the Summer Of Love 2009, and it was our mantra as we put together FADER Issue 62. We scoured the universe for the summeriest, most barbecuey music this year and came up with an issue that, if you scratch-and-sniff it, smells vaguely coconutty like Hawaiian Tropic (not really). As such, this issue’s podcast, presented by Bacardi B-LIVE, is about as clear a definition of what we think you should be listening to in the coming months as we could possibly make. It’s got songs from every artist in the issue from cover stars Phoenix, Major Lazer, Maluca, DJ Sega and Popo; featured power-bros Young Dro, Dum Dum Girls, Wavves, Crocodiles, Family Time Records fam, Gen Fers Omega, D-Lo and Sleepy D, Esser, CFCF, and like a trizillion more people! Download it below and listen while reading the issue, scorching hot like the sun on newsstands right now. And come back to TheFADER.com in two weeks for the free issue PDF that you can save on your computer until the robots take over.

Download the FADER 62 mix as an mp3 (right click, save as)
Sign up for our podcasts on iTunes
Subscribe via your favorite RSS reader
Check the tracklist after jump.

Read More

Freeload: Stag & Dagger Festival MP3 Bonanza

In our newest issue—available on paper or magic PDF paper—we chose Micachu & The Shapes to represent cover icon David Byrne’s tendency to be in the thick of things yet totally out of it. Cool, yet not cool. Micachu is right in the middle of the UK pop scene but is nowhere near anyone else, as you can hear on this cover of Toddla T’s “Backchatter” with Miss Bienek. Micachu will be playing Vice’s gigantic UK festival Stag & Dagger this Thursday at the London venue, and subsequent days will host every other band we’ve liked over the last year or so. So, go buckwild on free songs from a few of our favorites from the lineup and pick up Stag & Dagger tickets here.

LONDON 5/21:
Download: Micachu & The Shapes, “Backchatter”

Download: Abe Vigoda, “Don’t Lie”

Download: White Denim, “Mirrored and Reversed”

Download: Wild Beasts, “The Devil’s Crayon (Acoustic Version)”

LEEDS, 5/22:
Download: Vivian Girls, “Lake House”

Download: Telepathe, “Heater”

Download: Wavves, “Friends Were Gone”

GLASGOW 5/23:
Download: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, “Buriedfed”

Download: Black Lips, “I’ll Be With You”

Download: Mika Miko, “I Got A Lot”

POPULAR

RECENT

THE FADER NEWSLETTER

Get weekly highlights and exclusive content from thefader.com delivered via email.