The New Music

Wavves King Of The Beach [Fat Possum]

Need to know: Wavves is essentially one San Diegan named Nathan Williams, who began writing and self-recording songs at his parents house. Known for his bratty stoner persona and a love of skuzzy lo-fi production, Williams released the first (self-titled) Wavves album on Woodsist at the tail end of 2008 and saw it catch on like wildfire. He put out his second album, jokingly named Wavvves, not even six months later at the beginning of 2009 through Fat Possum. However, all the attention and demand for Wavves reached a boiling point, and Williams suffered a backlash and eventually a meltdown on stage at the Primavera Festival in Spain after downing some Valium and ecstasy. Drummer Ryan Ulsh quit the band there and then on stage and Zach Hill (of Hella fame) sat in until last fall, when Jay Reatard’s bassist and drummer, Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes, respectively, became full-time members of Wavves.

In a few words: Wavves’ third album King Of The Beach marks a significant shift in not only the band’s sound but also Williams’ songwriting. You can credit the year of turbulence for turning him around and searching inside himself to reveal that all is not well. Self-loathing, desolation and girl troubles all run throughout the album as themes, but by eschewing his laptop at the family home for a proper studio (Sweet Tea in Oxford, Mississippi) and a producer in Dennis Herring, you can actually empathize for the guy. Gone is the concentrated opaqueness from the inexperienced home recording (read: the term “lo-fi” seems almost wrong to use), yet King Of The Beach is easily the best thing Wavves has done yet. Having an actual band to fall back on has done wonders to Williams’ vision, giving him that added thwack for the punk-ish title track and the rollicking “Post Acid.” But on more solo-sounding moments, like the sample-heavy “Baseball Cards” and the lawsuit-baiting “Mickey Mouse” (which sounds like the Beach Boys could be as deserving of some royalties as Disney), Williams’ weed-smokin’, beach bum guise comes to life more vividly than ever. Best of all, the well-roundedness demonstrates that Wavves has the depth to find new life once the love affair with lo-fi ends in a bitter divorce.

Best track: “Mickey Mouse”

R.I.Y.L. Best Coast, Beach Fossils, No Age, Vivian Girls, Times New Viking, Dum Dum Girls

Rating: 9/10

Buy, download, steal or don’t bother: Buy on vinyl.

Sample: “Post Acid”

Website: MySpace.com/Wavves

-Cam Lindsay