I was figuring on going across the state last night to see the big rock show with Big Eyes and Dead Uncles, but they kept messing with the starting time (the reasons were understandable) and so I just put it aside. Instead, I headed down to Popeye's Garage, where Matt Wilga (drummer for Failures) was playing a solo set. Matt's solo 7" has intrigued me ever since I cribbed the a-side from the label's web site back in April; as the label blurb describes it, "There I Go, with its melancholic chord progression and timeless lyrics, will at once have the listener convinced that it must be some long forgotten standard." It also sounds somewhat like the Canopy demo that I wrote about a year ago.
Watching Matt Wilga's live set, I was reminded at different times of Graham Smith, Mikey Hyde (for about 10 seconds), and fucking Oasis. Mostly fucking Oasis, or at least once one of Matt's bandmates from one of his other bands, The Stoned Ambassadors, joined him on guitar, and they played a Stoned Ambassadors song and then a bunch of louder, feedback-heavy stuff after that. (What do you get when you cross Asia, The Doors, and Missing Persons? A totally shitty band that's still better than Oasis.) I liked the quieter songs at the beginning of the set much better, especially "There I Go" and the one that he started off with that I didn't catch the name of ("If I Tell Myself", maybe?).
As I was standing around, I was able to snag a copy of Matt's solo 7", meaning that I finally got my chance to hear the b-side-- two blown-out and fuzzy songs that harken back to the glory days of late 80's/early 90's distort-o bedroom pop. While some might say Jeebiz & Mary Chain, I say more like classic Kleenex Girl Wonder, particularly "Headed On That Ride". The visuals are pretty good, too: white vinyl to go with nice letterpress packaging. Even though only 300 of these were pressed and it came out at the tail end of last year, there still seems to be plenty of copies hanging around-- this despite being on the same label that sold out of the clear vinyl Confines 7" in about twelve seconds. It's definitely one of the niftiest singles I've heard all year, so it would probably do some good if you could pitch in and help move a couple copies by heading on over to the label (laboroflove.tumblr.com) and grabbing one right now.
"There I Go"
"Headed On That Ride"
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