Tulip Frenzy

When we saw Wand open for Ty Segall just over a year ago, we marveled at their potent combination of sludge and Power Pop.  We knew that Cory Hanson was a promising songwriter, a great singer, and as a guitarist was cut from the same Jolly Rogers jib as his mentor.  Drummer Evan Burrows brought this manic Keith Moon presence to the alternately gooey and hyper-speed proceedings, and the bass player… the bass player was the fulcrum around which these two tyros twisted.

We had no idea, though, listening to Wand’s excellent debut, Ganglion Reef, that barely one year later, they would have not only their sophomore release out, but they’d have crammed in enough credits to release a third album and in record speed ace junior year.

Golem came out in March, 1000 Days last Friday, and between the two of them, one easily could cull a single Album of The Year.  Any year.  It could be 1975 and we’re listening to Pink Floyd, 1990 and we’re listening to the Smashing Pumpkins, or 2010 and we’re simultaneously grokking on Ty and Tame Impala.  These are rough coordinates for these guys: they play with the power of Ty in his melodic punk incarnation, can turn on a dime into Prog, and can just melt metal til it’s goo.  Whereas before we could identify them by their chums — Hanson may be a Ty Segal protege, but he was also Mikael Cronin’s housemate.  These days we may as well throw in the whole West Coast gang — let’s add the Thee Oh Sees and White Fence, too, and declare: these guys are no one’s apprentice, they are now said musical giants’ peers.

The new one is the poppier of the two 2015 releases.  Sure, it thunders like Niagara when it needs to.  But there is genuine craftsmanship to the chops, the sonic values upend the old advertising come on: in space, everyone can hear you scream.

We don’t know what the judges are going say about how many recs by the same band can be considered for the Tulip Frenzy 2015 Top Ten List.  Watch this space.

This entry was posted on October 1, 2015 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags "1000 Days", "Ganglion Reef", "Golem", Wand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.