WeirdWolf – Good Touch
Genre: Alternative Rock
WeirdWolf are alt-rockers who’ve likely spent a fortune on Joe Walsh, and Sammy Hagar records, the kinds of heirlooms they must make sure that they keep hidden.
To be truthful, there wasn’t one famous alt-rocker or grunge artist who did not nurture a fetish for classic arena rock. The majority of them kept it hidden. Even Kurt Cobain, a man intimate with the songwriting of Boston, would yell out the name of all of his favorite art-rock records whenever inquired by a journalist.
The classic rockers weren’t subtle and very rarely did anything for art’s sake or for the common good. In that way, they were different from earnest punks. What they did have in common, however, was the ability to work in a crowd. Like Multi-level marketing salesmen, those big guitar riffs and tenor-range vocals helped sell records by the truckload.
WeirdWolf’s “Good Touch” sounds like the kind of tune that gets played on classic rock stations so that commuters can make it without fainting toward their first cup of coffee of the day. It’s a crowd-pleaser for sure, the kind that can be enjoyed by an audience group. However, there are enough quirks and presentation tricks to allow the group to make friends with the alt-rock crowds too.
Hairpin – Blur
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Rock
Hairpin’s brand of guitar pop may not be a new one, but the way that they so naturally fall upon good melodies and strong grooves is likely to get you on their side.
Indie rock and pop don’t stand for much. That’s both good and bad. It means that it can easily survive any serious discussion related to politics and weighty subjects. Indie-rock singers are the last bunch that are asked to comment on the news. You wouldn’t expect them to follow the news.
It can also be a difficult thing to manage. Because they don’t practice sloganeering or use virtuoso skills as their calling cards, indie bands are judged on one thing. That thing is the ability to make people dance, sway their heads or hum along. They’re a lot like pop artists but without expensive clothes and stage dancers.
Hairpin are new to the world of the indie-rock dance floor, but judging by their single “Blur”, they know exactly what’s to be expected of them. The fact is that Hairpin have a good, clever way of feeding strong grooves and melodies into their song. They’re not out to change the world but certainly have enough to get you humming along or persuade you to dance around your kitchen.
