Wallows (2022)

One Liner: B-list movie star band with great indie rock chops.

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, post-punk, power pop, indie rock, bedroom pop, surf punk
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 3 (they were on line 21 four years ago!)
Both Weekends.  Saturday.

Thoughts: Pretty good stuff.  They dabble a little bit in the 80's stuff, but it isn't the whole identity, it's just a facet.  They were last at ACL for the 2018 festival, but I think their set must have been really early in the day because I didn't get to see them play.  I would have though, they're solid.

The lead singer looks like an actor from one of the YA-novel-adapted movies I've seen recently.  Huh.  He is an actor, named Braeden Lemasters, but none of the movies and shows listed in his bio match up to anything I have seen recently (except for the Stephen King adaptation of 11.22.63).  He looks like someone else, man.

Oh no wait!  There are two lead singers.  The other one is Dylan Minnette, who I saw in the video and who looks like someone famous, because he's always staring at me from my Netflix suggested videos.  He stars in the 13 Reasons Why show, and was in Lost, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and the Goosebumps movie.  That is why I know his pretty little face.  I haven't actually watched the 13 Reasons Why show, I'm just not so sure about teenage suicide being my entertainment these days, with two teens and a tween under my roof.

The band went through a few different names before they settled on Wallows - Join the Band, Feaver, and The Narwhals.  The first one sucked, but all three of the others are good band names.  The band came together as children in Southern California, and apparently played the Warped Tour in 2011 (when the members would have been 14?).  But their first single as Wallows was "Pleaser," which is their third-most streamed track at 113.8 million streams.

I'm a fan.  This music is fun and feels like it will make for a good show of loud rock and roll in the Fall.  After that, they released 2018's Spring EP, full of guitars that sound like they spent a lot of time listening to the Cure.  The top track in 2018 was "Pictures of Girls," now with 51.3 million streams.

Hear those guitars?!  That chiming sound, combined with the bass lines, comes straight from The Cure.  The prior singles were also really good.  "Sun Tan" is chilled rock and "Pulling Leaves off Trees" is very good.  But the Spring EP definitely sticks to the new 80's formula.  They do a weird detour for "1980's Horror Film," which sounds very much like a Smiths/Morrisey track that was just barely left off of the Ferris Bueller soundtrack. 

After that, they released 2019's Nothing Happens, which I reviewed back then.  

Wallows - Nothing Happens.  Yeah, baby.  These guys came to ACL last year and I dug the handful of singles and tracks they had released beforehand, but now they have a full album in the wild and it is tasty rock and roll scrumminess.  Also, this is that band that features a relatively famous actor, who was in Alexander and the Horrible Terrible No Good Day (or whatever) and that 13 Ways to Die show on Netflix.  But regardless of that semi-fame angle, this music is highly fun bashing rock - less of the 80's rock vibe from their early EP and more of a Killers mixed with Vampire Weekend mixed with the Strokes vibe.  The song I was sure would be the hit, "Scrawny," which has this catchy chorus of "scrawny motherfucker with a cool hairstyle," only has 2.5 million streams (now 114.0 million!), so it loses out to "Are You Bored Yet?" with 9.5 million streams (now up to a remarkable 529.3 million!!!).  Pretty respectable for an off-the-radar band...

Got like some Bowie flavor in there as well - heavy on the 80's synths and that vaguely Asian recurring riff.  That's a good tune and all, but I like it better when they get dirty like on the guitar breakdown on "What You Like."  Overall, the album is pretty chilled rock, not a lot of truly uptempo tracks, but I have liked it a lot.

And a few years after that, along came the Remote EP in 2020.  I also reviewed that one:

Wallows - Remote.  I kinda think these guys came to ACL one year, and that is why I have them on my radar.  They sound fun, kind of like Two Door Cinema Club jamming with Weezer, a little bit whimsical, a little bit rock and roll.  It's a got a nice shine to the tracks, a brightness that makes me happy.  At only 6 songs, this one feels like an EP or single, but I think the clear winner is "Nobody Gets Me (Like You)."

Oh shit!  These guys did come to ACL - this is the band with a semi-famous actor in it.  The guy who was the lead in Alexander and the Horrible Bad Super Lame No Good Day.  Sorry to make you watch that video - the first 3 minutes are kind of annoying blather.  But the tune is a catchy little ditty.  "Talk Like That" also has a cuteness and danceability that is very fun.  I like this one.

And in 2021, they released a Deluxe version of Remote that tacked on five more songs.  The best one of those is "Quarterback" which is a nice little poppy nugget of good times.  Catchy sucker too.

And finally, they have a whole new album!  2022's Tell Me That It's Over sticks to the same process to roll out a good rock and roll album.  The top streamer so far is "I Don't Want to Talk" with 14.8 million streams.

JAM!  More eighties redux sounds in there, but enough Strokes ripoff riffs to make me forgive them.  Some Vampire Weekend vibes in it too.  "Missing Out" is a Weezer ripoff.  Yeah, I am really enjoying these tunes.  Let's do it!