[MP3]
Wavves Mickey Mouse
I have never actively listened to a Wavves song, because they seem to be ‘too fuzzy’ or something. Kinda like the ‘garage band aesthetic’ that I don’t ‘get.’ However, I listened to his new song ‘MICKEY MOUSE’ and it made me very confused. It sounded a lot like the band Animal Collective, particularly a song structured by the musical genius Noah ‘Panda Bear’ Lennox.
Sorta reminds me of ‘Peace Bone’ mixed with ‘Bros’ type of structure and hint of ‘Reverend Green/Fireworks.’ I think the lyrics are talking about ‘never wanting to be old’, then references some cryptic metaphor about ‘a thing in the back of your brain’ (science analogy trying to remind u how mortal we are), and then something about your brain telling u that u will ‘be safe.’ It seems like a very ’simple song’, like to the point that you could say it is ’stupid.’
I am not sure why Wavves is converting to the conceptual core aesthetic. Maybe he sees that the live brand that Animal Collective has established, and believes that he can make a longer, more fiscally empowering career if he makes songs that are meaningful, simple looped electronic conceptual core ballads. Probs questions the long term viability of ‘fuzzy guitar with droned lyrics.’ Feel like he possibly might be ‘making fun of every1′ for ‘liking AnCo’, and made this song to say ‘this type of song is easy to make, I can shit out a song like this as a joke.’ Suddenly felt insecure, like he is making fun of me for wearing a Merriweather Post Pavvy tshirt. Not sure if he just ‘deconstructed’ the state of the modern indie-musicsphere with this song, or if he is ‘trying to break into it.’
Wavves seems to h8 everything.
Seems like he has a ‘destructive personality’, even though people might call him ‘a genius.’ Maybe he is a talented, fallen-from-grace bro who is ’searching for something more’ out of life/’the arts’, and can’t help but feel ‘disconnected’ from the type of ghey rewards/ghey fans that come with ’success’ in any sphere of ‘the arts.’ If I could be a writer for Rolling Stone/SPIN/other dying music mag, I would start constructing a long profile piece, calling him ‘The Indie Kurt Cobain’ just in case he really is ‘trying to leave this Earth.’ Would make sure to emphasize that his soul is ‘beautiful’ and possibly ‘misunderstood’ even though we continue to hear his name in some what ‘destructive’ news stories.
Previous Wavves Coverage: I don’t ‘get’ Wavves
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2009/03/wavves-bro.html
Wonder if Wavves is HRO’s ‘next Justice’ in that I ‘don’t listen to his music very actively’, but enjoy analyzing his personal brand/aesthetic.
Loading ...
IAmCarles.com
46 Comments
last
-
no, it is not
Reply
//////////Reply by Kim
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@pedro, pedro seems like a very hot mexi name
Reply
//////////Reply by pedro
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 5:58 pm
@Kim, hm, it really does. but i’m not.
Reply
//////////Reply by Kim
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
@pedro, so you are just ashamed because of the swine flu, right? u r probably a wavves fan
//////////Reply by pedro
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@Kim, huh, i’m brazillian.
read my comment below, and you’ll see that i’m not a wavves fun. in fact, the only wavves song that i’ve heard is the one that is the subject of this post. (which i enjoyed, honestly)
omg!!!!!!!!!
they scare da hell outta me
Reply
actually isn’t this song supposed to be some old thing he didnt want to work on further
Reply
//////////Reply by ALL I DO IS PARTY
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 5:53 pm
@anon, yeh br0
Reply
wayvs just makes me furious. I come here to laugh/grin, not to get furious. If i wanted to become furious i’d just look for trolls in the stereogum “most commented post” section.
Reply
damn. so maybe his music has always been a ‘parody’ with ‘tongue planted firmly in cheek’ after all.
feel ’shammed’. wow. usually I ‘get’ when someone is being ironic or being ironic about being ironic. I’m usually the first in my group of friends to ‘get’ something because I feel like I’m ‘keen on discrepancies’ and ‘intent’ and things like that.
but the intellectual/humorous/commentarious side of the Wavves meme seemed to have ‘went right over my head’. now I think he was just ‘making fun’ of drug use and sk8boarding and things like that. and therefore ‘making fun’ of certain images and the music industry.
[proof of something which 'makes sense now'. ever notice that supposedly the drummerbro 'quit the band' because he was 's0 bored'? well, ever notice that no one moved his name from 'members' to 'previous members' on Wiki? this shit is just getting started.]
used to h8 on Wavves because I figured he wasn’t self-aware like my favorite ‘hipster musicians’ [via 'doing stupid shit'] but now I realize that he was just doing Devo-style deadpan shit which Iove. Prob woulda thought ‘Devo was dumb 80s shit’ if my friend wouldn’t have ‘deconstructed their intent’ for me.
see Wavves in a totally ‘different light’ now yall. feel stupid that he ‘had me’, like I was the butt of his ‘huge joke’ after all. feel sad because my bros and I wanted to be the first ironic band to ‘make fun of’ the AnCo aesthetic via an EP.
Reply
//////////Reply by k
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:32 pm
@skybreads, just shut up man, please, just be quiet
Reply
//////////Reply by k
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
@skybreads, really i hate you people who emulate carles
Reply
//////////Reply by vdieselfor20
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
@k, i h8 ‘haters’
Reply
//////////Reply by vdieselfor20
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm
@k, nm just read some of the comment fucking h8 it
Reply
//////////Reply by skybread
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
@k,
anonymous internet personalities are serious business.
ur s0 above certain things bro
Reply
//////////Reply by December
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 8:03 pm
@k, ja, u have a bad vibe. Maybe that’s an authentic brand. But, i mean, let’s just say, I wouldn’t buy your 100% cotton made in america tees and leggings.
But, skybeards, srsly, tldr. <3 u’all.
Reply
//////////Reply by skybreads
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 8:13 pm
@December,
let’s go to a show
//////////Reply by Mart of Bart
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 am
@skybreads, why do you try so hard to write like carles?
Reply
//////////Reply by skybreads
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 4:09 am
@Mart of Bart,
because this is the website Hipster Runoff and I’m adding to the opinion of the article with discourse written in the same style… and because that’s basically what everyone does on this website in order to get their points across anyways? because I felt like it? because Carles is my r0le m0del? why is this question being raised meta-ly with me? was it the length of my post?
people who love ‘calling people out’ always have to get on someone for not having an ‘original style’ when the object of this whole thing is to ‘play along’. anyway, I’m making fun of the concept of a poster who is defensive right now with this post, so suck it.
I thought this was supposed to be a support group for ’self-aware bros’, but I guess not.
Reply
//////////Reply by Mart of Bart
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
@skybreads, yeah i get it, but i mean, you’re still being defensive. you can’t really play along and be above it at the same time…
//////////Reply by bbbbb
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@skybreads, u need to go back 2 alt skool.
//////////Reply by k
//////////Posted July 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
@skybreads, THIS BLOG IS A CELEBRATION OF WESTERN INDIVIDUALITY
what is this bro
damn
Reply
re wavves
Reply
i dig this tune
Reply
way 2 much buzz just for a song. whether it’s a joke or not, who cares? yall enjoyed the song
so you may even be post-ironic once you do appreciate wavves’ mickey mouse. know what i mean?
Reply
ddont llikke wavvvves bbro, sseems llike a sspoiled ffucktRdd
Reply
does anyone else sing the song ‘mickey mouse’ by Sparks ‘in their head’ every time they read about this meme?
Reply
//////////Reply by generikwittycmmnt
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
@fortune, no.
Reply
//////////Reply by SilveroTellerson
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 am
@fortune, I googled that shit because I didn’t get the reference. I watched half the song and felt like I watched one fifth of the song too much.
Reply
wasnt kurdt kobain sorta indie himself???
idk, i thank wavvvvvvves needs to find himself a hot trannee mess a la courtney love
Reply
//////////Reply by jjj
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
@el fggt, did someone say hot tranny mess?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6sjxg6zEBM
Reply
wavves kind of sounds like what my grandma thinks the Buzzcocks sound like. I kind of like him or them.
Reply
Oh they’re totally taking a dump on me with this song (via AnCo stylin’)
Reply
thought he died @ p4kfesty.
so confused.
RIP WAVVES?????!?!???
Reply
//////////Reply by xcvva
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
@:(, no. what tha fuck are you sayin’?!
Reply
//////////Reply by Amanda
//////////Posted July 25th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
@xcvva,
That would actually be a perfect death for him.
Pitchfork loves to love/hate him.
Reply
ha this melody is so catchy love it
Reply
reminds me of my grandpas ‘meaningful’ bagpipe music.
feel like i need to urinate now 2.
Reply
the “Da Doo Ron Ron” sample is so awesome. Maybe the Spector Wall of Sound is why he sounds similar to PB/AC but I thought that they sounded similar to begin with??? In my mind?
Reply
why is mickey mouse so fucking awesome
Reply
Thinking that Wavves is good because it might be ironic is like thinking HRO is good because it might be ironic.
Reply
//////////Reply by Is it though?
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 am
@jjj, I mean, can we even tell anymore? I don’t even think I know what irony is at this point. The other day I saw an old lady wearing the same glasses as a made up twenty something smoking weed listening to a cassette player. Was he dressing ‘ironically’? Was he ‘broke’? Did he fucking put scare quotes on everything? Is he tattooed in helvetica? I don’t fucking know anymore.
Reply
//////////Reply by SilveroTellerson
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 am
@Is it though?, srsly!!! when it comes to fashion, photography, contemporary art, music, and blogging it’s becoming a confusing pomo cluster fuck. noise is drowning out the signal. context collapse!
Reply
//////////Reply by kafkaBro
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am
@SilveroTellerson, hells yes, the reference point is lost in a sea of referrants. Irony is dead, Irony is everything.
//////////Reply by whitenoisebro
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
@SilveroTellerson, these few replies here were like the smartest shit i ever read on HRO…the internet culture caused this crazy post modernist world, where replicas replace what theyre replicating, everythings a copy of a copy of a copy until you cant identify the simulated from the real. white noise is killin us all….fuck scare quotes fuck irony fuck analysis, from now on im listenin to music with no point of reference and no context, i shall blindly listen to songs without knowing who the bands are and what they look like and where they come from and what their intent was and if their intent was ironic or post ironic or post post ironic ironic, yo
//////////Reply by Robby the Wrangler
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
@SilveroTellerson,
It’s the spectacle, bro. This Guy talked all about it.
Hearing him do a song like this isn’t surprising at all. I used to see his old band Fantastic Magic a lot around San Diego and they were a ‘freak folk’ band. Wavves cashing in on ’shitgaze’… Meaningfulcore’s only going to be around for more years to come so I guess he’s gotta make that $$$.
Reply
//////////Reply by SilveroTellerson
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
@Morpheus, “shitgaze” made me giggle. thank u. feel like “shitgaze” describes Wavves concisely.
Reply
i like wavves a lot, i would say he is closer to ripping off noage/abe vigoda rather than anco/pandybear
Reply
//////////Reply by daffy
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
@Andrew, uh, more like ripping off catatonic youth, a.pink, blank dogs, etc etc.
Reply
but that song is def closer to anco
Reply
http://www.mediafire.com/?mh5ljl2c1gd
Fantastik magik – wavves pre wavess
Reply
wayyy too many posts about wavves
Reply
//////////Reply by absolut kaoossss
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 4:37 am
@z, yeah word. i’ll be honest yall, wavves kinda sucks, it’s a one hit wonder without a hit.
Reply
Hmm…
For me Wavves is like lemon bubblegum. After chewing it you’re still unsure if it’s good or not.
Reply
Thanks for all the memories Carles
Reply
heard dis band is da new wavvesco http://www.myspace.com/thebros
Reply
//////////Reply by denver
//////////Posted July 21st, 2009 at 11:34 pm
@anon, gotta get back to the drawing board bro, your songs are no bueno
Reply
i feel as if lately you are subtly trying to incite assassination attempts upon the dork from wavves. It’s starting to work…i can feel it inside me.
Reply
CRLS. listen. either ‘let’s get vulnerable’
or
POSTMOREFGGTS
kthxbi
Reply
Total ripoff, but mostly enjoyable [via Q. Tarantino]
Reply
//////////Reply by k
//////////Posted July 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
@zxcvb, the vanishing > kill bill 2
Reply
Last September I bought the Wavves s/t cassette from Nathan and used the packet it was mailed in as proof of my address to vote in the Canadian election
Reply
//////////Reply by 8armsnine
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 am
@lol, v. meaningful story
Reply
Wavves is so awful. It’s like if you took Panda Bear, Thee Oh Sees, Ariel Pink, or anything good and with genuine merit and dumbed it the fuck down and faked it.
I saw this interview with Wavves for Fader and the guy and the interviewer were so vapid, fake, disaffected, lazy, obviously rich, unintelligent and stoned that it was at once embarrassing and enraging.
Reply
//////////Reply by b4hc
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
@Marek, \m/
Reply
//////////Reply by DICKZ
//////////Posted July 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 am
@Marek,
the problem with your argument is you just named a bunch of stuff that also sucks.
Reply
//////////Reply by Marek
//////////Posted July 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
@DICKZ, Ha! Yeah I know a lot of people can’t stand Ariel Pink or Thee Oh Sees. I think they’re fantastic. Because they’re true to their aesthetic and there’s an idea behind it, and mostly because *the songs are there*. Ariel Pink writes great pop songs with a real ear for classic pop convention. Same goes for John Dwyer but with garage rock, and they do it without taking themselves too seriously.
Then a Wavves or a John Maus will come along like “Oh, get it, make a halfass sounding song and produce it all shitty and people will think it’s cool” But I don’t think that’s the point. I think of it more like looking into an artist’s sketchbook, at the rough draft of an idea that will one day become an amazing record.
I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Reply
//////////Reply by 555
//////////Posted July 24th, 2009 at 4:45 am
@Marek,
love the oh sees! they sound s000 much like the b52s!
//////////Reply by Morpheus
//////////Posted July 24th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
@Marek,
Raging so much at your John Maus ignorance.
Who would you guys like to track a video game? Answer at Touche, Bitches! (www.touchebitches.com), yo.
Reply
It’s pretty simple. He wants to sound like AC, but uses irony as a backup if he fails. Which he does, ’cause even though the intro and his Avey-imitation are spot on, the lyrics are borderline embarrasing. He does a better job than Bradford Cox though.
Reply
very interesting analysis. anco rip off? or anco parody? if this is a parody, like i think it is, then it reassures my belief that wavves is the most punk rock dude in the indie/internet music landscape.
Reply
//////////Reply by b4hc
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
@bloodkilla, think wavves is s00 serious, not capable of making an anco parody.
h8 waayyveyaveyaveyayyayvvvezz…………… SO MUCH………
Reply
these comments are insolvent
Reply
//////////Reply by daffy
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
@Chrises, wtf is a meme?
Reply
Holy shit wow. There is just too much fucking irony in the world now. How is it fucking possible for me to listen to a song, a song I like, and then have the whole experience ruined by the unavoidable question of whether or not it was ’sincere’ or ‘ironic’ or self-aware or whatever it is. Dammit.
Reply
AnCo feels-era (no age remix)
helluva tune tho, shame it won’t be on record 3
‘i never wanna leave home
and the thing in the back of my brain
told me that i would be safe
when i’m out there…’
meaningful and relevant
Reply
//////////Reply by anon
//////////Posted July 23rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
@altBro, i thought the same thing good lyrics
Reply
h8 to say this but kinda like wavves now, the burned out saturated production grows on you.
Reply
My prediciton: Wavves will find religion and no longer be relevant (or an altBro). He will record several Christian albums (via Bob Dylan circa 1981) which will be (besides unrelevant) critical failures. Wavves will then take his religion less seriously and resume touring and producing non-religious albums.
Reply
//////////Reply by anthony
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 am
@Funky Rutabaga,
‘unrelevant’ isnt a word brah…
Reply
im glad most of yall hate this band, if yall hate it then i can like it, insisting yall r not authentic enough 2 understand it. if yall like it i cant like it because its just a mainstream fad of the future. unless yall like dont like it ironically, then i still hate it.
Reply
//////////Reply by whitenoisebro
//////////Posted July 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
@lol, but ur posting here so arent u just part of “yall” after all lol got u there
Reply
think he’s ripping off ‘the modest mouses’ and their mouse aesthetic. was ’s0 bored’ when he performed at p4k fest 20 mins late…was he trying 2 be late or making fun of ppl who are?????
what is real n e more, bros????
Reply
//////////Reply by 555
//////////Posted July 24th, 2009 at 4:49 am
@brobro,
exactly.
stuff wavves has made fun of as a satirist:
-lo-fi rock
-breakdowns
-AnCo
-sk8boarding
-homeless people
-being late
-canceling shows
-drugs
-the patch Retro//A2 on the microKORG (via ‘Spaced Raider’)
what else?
Reply
he’s using a greatful dead sample.
Reply
Wavves’ aesthetic is: He just doesn’t care. That’s supposed to be ‘punk’ or something. So if you don’t care either, I guess you will like the musicas.
Reply
this is one of the funniest posts ever. even the fucking comments are hilarious. wavves is hilarious
Reply