Wet Leg (2025)

One Liner: Excellent indie rock ladies with some danceable jams
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, post-punk, indie pop, Britpop
Home: Isle of Wight

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 4
Sunday.
Both Weekends.

American Express Stage at 4:30.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2022.  Here is what I had to say about their set at the time: "They sounded great - the set was pretty much their album on shuffle - but the tunes were tight and everyone seemed in sync.  So glad I got to finally catch a set."

Now they are back, and with a brand new album to boot.  Lucky us!

A "wet leg" is slang for a self-pitying person.  I am a wet leg right now because my work in annoying and I didn't get an August vacation and my dog tore his ACL.  Ugh.  These ladies formed the band in 2019 and their first single racked up millions of streams and a ton of buzz right away.  Their first album is 2022's Wet Leg, which debuted at number one in UK, Australia, and Ireland.  Wikipedia lists two different stories for the provenance of the band's name: (1) the band chose this name by playing a game picking different emoji combinations, and when they landed on wet leg, it stuck; and (2) their name came from a regional epithet from the Isle of Wight to describe non-islanders on the island, because those who had crossed the Solent to enter the isle were said to have a wet leg from getting off the boat.

More importantly than all of that, the music freaking rules.  Several songs on the first album are straight jams.  "Chaise Lounge" is the hit, but "Wet Dream" rules (with, like, a cheerleader party sort of vibe), and if not for the long scream in the middle, "Ur Mum" would also be a top song on the disc.  "Supermarket" has a great sing-along bit of her singing that she got "too high-e-i-e-i-e-i-e-igh."  These ladies were the belles of SXSW back in 2022, and you can definitely tell why.  They're kinda funny, have sweet jams, and just sound like today.  For example, the lyrics to "Chaise Lounge" allow some good old-fashioned double-entendre where she sings about telling her parents to look at her because she went to college and got the "Big D."  Which is both a degree and the peen.  Then they go into a bit about buttered muffins and getting horizontal on the chaise lounge.  It's silly and funny and absolutely danceable as hell.  You know it's the hit as well, so here it is with 92 million streams.

Absolutely more funny hearing those words come out of the mouth of a girl who looks 15.  And the Strokes-ian guitars are great too.  When you watch their mouth, as they sing the words "chaise lounge" it looks like they don't even say the "nge" at the end.  That is weird. Love the kicks when the chorus kicks off.  Great fun.  That's what I'd say about the whole thing - its great fun.  Feels like these girls are here to goof around and kick out jams.  Somewhat surprisingly to me, the clubhouse leader for streams ends up being "Wet Dream," which is surged beyond that one for the stream crown at 159.6 million spins.

Lobster claw party!  Seems very dangerous to drive while wearing those.  I had never heard of Buffalo 66, which is mentioned in there as being a DVD that she owns.  Stars Christina Ricci, Vincent Gallo, Mickey Rourke, Anjelica Huston - all sorts of folks!  Never heard of it!  Gonna need to check it out now!

Then the new album is called moisturizer.  The cover of it is slightly unsettling, as the lead singer is crouched in an empty room like some sort of zombie spider monster person, and her face looks like a cross between Leeloo from The Fifth Element and that scary cover art for that Aphex Twin album   The guitar in "catch these fists" reminds me of Franz Ferdinand.  The "is it love?" they keep saying in "CPR" is making me think of the Primus song "Is it Luck?" where Les Claypool yelps that phrase repeatedly.  "CPR" also has a nugget of an old 80's song that won't come back to me, when she gets shrill to sing the chorus.  "pillow talk" is kinda nasty (in a fun way) and has thick riffs, beating drums, and then a piano riff combined with winding guitars that brings Queens of the Stone Age to mind.  The bassline in "11:21" makes me think of the Beatles and the folks who copy them like Jet.  "mangetout" has vocals that sound like Gwen Stefani getting cutesy.  "pokemon" is just purely pretty.  If you can't tell, the album is a little chameleonic, but I also think it is great.  The top track is "catch these fists," with only 10.2 million streams.

"i just wanna dance with my friends...."  Great stuff.

A few years back, my younger brother told me about a fun activity that he will get in to on a night after going out for dinner and drinks.  He'll fire up YouTube on his TV and just watch the old videos from our teenage years - grunge, hair metal, West Coast rap - and just revel in the nostalgia and pleasure.  I love it.  But the other thing I have integrated into there is to watch some of the eighty-million Tiny Desk concerts that are available on there.  Very good fun.  And these ladies do an excellent Tiny Desk (even if the lead singer now sort of looks terrifying).

Sure makes it seem like the band has shifted from two ladies making music together to one lady fronting a band of five.  But that version of "CPR" is fantastic.  Her vocals on "mangetout" are better in that version than on the album.

I'd absolutely go watch.  These tunes are good stuff.  It is truly and deeply annoying that they are opposite Rainbow Kitten.  The 6:15 slot is full of junk I don't care about, and yet 4:30 has to pit two top tier indie rock bands against each other?  Rude.