[Photo by Joe Perez, courtesy of Impose]
Ah, to be the media darling of the moment. There may be 25,000 people doing the same thing as you — some may argue doing it better — but what is it that drives everyone to start talking about the same band? Around these parts we call it the Animal Collective effect, but in essence it’s more like a snowball effect. First the bloggers prop you up, then Pitchfork takes it to the mainstream level and before you know it, the New York Times are reviewing shows thrown at some dude’s apartment.
Well, the night before said show, Wavves played an equally industry-adorned show at the Market Hotel. For those of you outside of NYC, there was a time when the “industry” wouldn’t dare set foot at a Todd P show, let alone one in Bushwick, but they were all there in full effect — only to leave right after Nathan’s set (also in true “industry” fashion). That set, along with all of the rude industry people talking over his quiet songs, has been made available by NYC Taper.
Like many both in and out of the industry, we like Wavves, we just hate the hype. To quote NYC Taper: Wavves (and Nathan) are indeed quite good, as last night’s set was a fine live garage-rock style presentation of Nathan’s excellent bedroom-lo-fi recordings. But really we would prefer to see them perform when not being bumped into by industry-types rushing to the front lines. Fortunately, Nathan seems like a good-natured and level-headed kid who should survive the inevitable backlash and the days when he is no longer the “next big thing”. We wish him luck.
Direct download of MP3 files here.
Related:
