February White Label Series
Lou Barlow picks our February Artist - Waveless from Minneapolis, MN
"My wife Adelle is a Twin Cities (Minneapolis-Saint Paul) native and she reads their weekly 'City Pages' online. Like, the one in every big city with the snarky reviews and doom-y articles about local politics. We were hanging out post-dinner one night and she thought it would be interesting to listen to some of their picks for Best Local Music. One of them was this band called Waveless. We clicked on a link, plugged in the Bluetooth speaker and out came "Nausea". It sounded like it was recorded in a warehouse, a similar sound to the first Hüsker Dü 7-inch, "Statues b/w Amusement". (I like to force comparisons with artists from the same city. It's fun and totally unfair. Also, it probably wasn’t recorded in a warehouse.) Even more than early, early Hüsker Dü, it reminded me of the great heyday of New Zealand noise-pop in the late 80s and early 90s. The big, rainy, echoed sound of Bailter Space and other bands on the Flying Nun record label. Shranging guitars with male and female voices floating in the din.
Waveless trigger a lot of nostalgia for me but I don’t think anyone could have hit these chords quite like this 30 years ago. The guitar is in a unique tuning, and the drums pound in such a way that you don’t hear much beyond "heavy" music. They are definitely of their time and, because of that, somehow, I don’t think many people have processed how great they are just yet. Although youngsters continue to gravitate to the sounds of the 90s,, the bands that embody the best aspects of the era often go under-appreciated.
I downloaded (purchased!) this EP immediately from Bandcamp and have listened to it regularly since, more than any other new music. I am not sure why this record wasn’t released on vinyl (or even CD... they did self-release it on cassette but I refuse to count that).Their second EP did make it to vinyl recently and it’s every bit as good (or better!?) than this baby. Weirdly, it’s on a label that seems to specialize in 80s style hardcore. Waveless are lovely though. Sweet comfort for my ringing ears."
Check out Waveless on Bandcamp! Connect with them on Facebook!