Music Review: Strange Wilds

Our guest blogger is hobbyist reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward: 

Strange Wilds, Subjective Concepts , 2015, Sub Pop Records 

A grungy punk trio from Olympia, Washington State signed to Sub Pop records. No we have not gone back in time to 1989. I am reviewing a debut album released this year in July by a band named Strange Wilds, who sound like they’ve teleported straight from the late 80s/early 90s Seattle grunge scene to assault our ears. Their state and record label has been home to Nirvana and other indie rock legends, whose anguished noisy spirit they tap into with joyous enthusiasm.

 

Now surely a band coming out and replicating a sound popular over a decade ago is a sign to be worried about the progression of music. Then again, there aren’t many places left for music to progress to. There are still lots of good bands coming out, but there’s no big unifying rock movement pushing the genre forward. There are lots of scattered bands who mostly try to sound like great bands from the past who already broke down some musical barriers. A few bands who have cropped up in NME , like Wolf Alice for example, sound and dress like a 90s grunge band. As nice as it is to see people still inspired by this great time in music, the fuzzy-angst-in-converse-and-scruffy-sweaters formula has been done a lot and some current bands (like, in my opinion, Wolf Alice) sound like bland reproductions.

Strange Wilds are the first grunge throwback I’ve heard that I enjoyed. This is because they choose not to channel the brooding stadium-ready gloom popularised by mainstream grunge acts like Pearl Jam  and Soundgarden, which countless post-grunge fakers have wallowed in (Nickelback being the chief culprit). The album Subjective Conceptions harks back to the glory days of grunge’s punk/hardcore roots, sounding like a lost Mudhoney  or Black Flag record. Each song snarls and drips with twisted scorn while thundering along with gnarly riffs not out of place on Nirvana’s first album or a Melvins record.

While there’s nothing strikingly original here, it is nice to listen to a band who like making noise for the hell of it and having a good time. Most current indie bands are either light and fluffy, or take themselves too seriously. Take Metz  for example, Strange Wilds’ fellow contemporaries of noise also signed to Sub Pop, who have released their second album this year. The bleak and terrifying din from Metz is impressive, but noise is all you get with some barely distinct lyrics hollered over the top.

 

Listening to Subjective Concepts however, I found myself (shock horror) singing along, something I haven’t done with any recent bands for a while, especially since most bands insist on distorting the vocals beyond recognition. Strange Wilds singer Steven’s vocals are left free and clear to bitterly mutter the verses and howl the choruses in true grunge fashion. The twisted lyrics aren’t bad either, if a bit infantile (‘the streets are littered with our filth’ etc) but the whole band yells them with such gleeful abandon they’re infectious. The band have mastered the art of the catchy grungy chorus, with some spikes of smart sarcasm throughout.

Nowhere is this more effective than on the album’s most powerful track: the opener and single ‘Pronoia’. This is the one song that comes close to being a sincere anthem despairing of the human condition, roaring along with full throttle punk energy. The video is cool as well, showing off the band’s imagination. Standard shots of the blond, long-haired singer thrashing around on his guitar (remind you of anyone?) are interspersed with queasy shots of food and other unidentifiable squishy objects being smashed.

If you still buy CDs, the album’s artwork is cool too. I love record covers that don’t match the content. On the Subjective Concepts cover, we have a young woman dancing on the edge of a building over some urban landscape at sunrise. That and the delicate album title suggest you’re in for some soft ambient music about the self-destructive desire for freedom from social constraints or something. I hope someone picks this up and is pleasantly surprised by the loud, squalling bitterness within. This is a band I’ve been waiting for since headbanging to Nirvana as a teen. This is a short but unforgettable blast of glorious rage that borrows heavily from the past but still sounds fresh, fun and rocks like a boss.