the beatles, the ramones, the silver jews, pavement, the olsen twins, will oldham, richard buckner, the subway, the everly brothers, wu tang clan, woody allen, bob dylan
Sounds Like
"The Wowz' nugget-pop are happy pills for manic-depressives, sucked-out helium from dodgeball-sized balloons... [They] are smart enough to know that cheery self-effacement, far from improper, speaks volumes of sense." - PITCHFORK
"Antifolkies so raggedy-ass they could be postpunks or something, they have the great virtue of knowing the early Beatles exist -- that is, existed." - ROBERT CHRISTGAU (VILLAGE VOICE)
"Either good music is timeless, or these guys have figured out how to create Beatles-esque and Dylan-ish music without sounding like a tired nostalgia trip. They don't strictly sound like these artists, but with songs built on strong harmony and a stripped down musical approach, those are the two most obvious comparisons." - PUNK PLANET, Issue 66
"The Wowz' full-length debut, Long Grain Rights, is a righteously shambolic North Brooklyn hootenanny filled with neurotic surrealism, joyous lust, and more catchy folk-rock melodies than you can shake a cryogenically frozen hipster at. [The album] is a take on modern, urban (?) life that owes more to Lou Reed's shock-happy Transformer than any innocent '60s pop." - IRT
"The Wowz are kind of like a coked-up youth group sing-along; the trio plays hyperchirpy, manic songs with ecstatic titles like 'Nothin' Would Be Better' and 'Happy Today.' Watch out, though--their cheery outlook (ironic or not) is contagious." - TIME OUT NEW YORK
With the help of NYCs Recommended If You Like Records, The WoWz have taken it upon themselves to offer a truce: their second LP, COOL DUMP, is yours. For free. Check it out at http://freecooldump.riylrecords.com.
ABOUT THE WOWZ:
The WoWz are a prolific three-piece miscellaneous band from New York City who comb (and combine) the eternal dolor of Hank Williams Sr. with the perverse humor of David Berman and the improbable harmonies of BEATLES FOR SALE. Since 2004, theyve recorded two full-length records and an EP.
Their debut, LONG GRAIN RIGHTS, was recorded in early 2004 at Balloon Heaven, an appalling dump of a Bensonhurst basement that has likewise captured the sounds of Adam Green, Herman Düne and Jeffrey Lewis. Released on NYCs Recommended If You Like Records, LONG GRAIN RIGHTS plays like a fermented solution of powdered sugar and baking soda - a compound as addictive as picking your scalp.
After completing that album, Sam James (guitar, bass, vocals), Simon Beins (guitars, vocals) and Johnny Dydo (drums, vocals) sought out the next basement they could find: Johnny's pop's laundry room in Yonkers. There, inspired by sawdust and commuters' fury, they continued to mutate, juxtaposing Sam and Simon's rebelliously cherubic voices with the electric flatulence of bass fuzz and the astonishingly ornithological indigestion of feedback.
In the meantime, The WoWz played frequent acoustic sets all over NYC and began to leave the subway long enough to play out of the city, hitching rides with pals like The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, The Brunettes and David-Ivar Herman Düne.
In June 2004, The WoWz found yet another basement that would let them descend into it; and so they set up shop at Care-A-Lot Studios in Harlem and hastily recorded the 5-song NICOTINE BUBBLEGUM EP for Luv-A-Lot Records. Throughout 2005, The WoWz composed and recorded the soundtrack for Mosaic Films production KING CORN with producer Bo Ramsey, and released their second full-length, COOL DUMP (Luv-a-Lot / RiYL), a reaming tower of questionable matter lovingly groped by some and exasperated by many.
Like LONG GRAIN RIGHTS and NICOTINE BUBBLEGUM, COOL DUMP finds the band at the outer reaches of quirkiness, poised to teeter upon the precipice (and prepuce) of advisable beauty until they all fall down... and perhaps only then, after we've read their wills, might we understand what that name of theirs means.
COMING UP :: THURSDAY’S M:Soundtrack presents TONITE April 2nd @ 9 p.m. :: I WAS A KING (Norway) + THE FISHERMAN THREE (NYC/The Wowz) A Norwegian label Hype City night(I Was a King, Herman Dune, Serena Maneesh) I WAS A KING brings us its followup album, entitled "I Was a King". It recorded at Marlborough Farms in Brooklyn, with the help of Emil Nikolaisen (Serena Maneesh), Sufjan Stevens, Daniel Smith (Danielson) and Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor). The album was mixed by Nick Terry (Primal Scream, The Libertines, Klaxons plus more) and was released in Europe on Hype City (Serena Maneesh, Herman Dune) and will be released in the USA on The Control Group (Kings of Leon, The Killers). Front man Frode Strømstad has a unique gift for creating addictive melodies with distinctive roots in the 60's, distorted through the sound of the 90's indie scene, when bands like Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr. and Guided By Voices made rock exciting once again. File next to: Fountains Of Wayne, Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Strawberry Wine-era My Bloody Valentine.”
THE FISHERMAN THREE play mystical country music and blues of every color. Simon Beins, member of New York City's weird folk trio The WoWz, writes the songs and plays a few instruments, and Raphi Gottesman provides spiritual guidance, friendship, and percussion. "Rosina on Every Balcony" their debut album, was written in between WoWz tours with pals Herman Dune, The Wave Pictures, Turner Cody and Lisa Li-Lund. Recorded with Major Matt Mason at Olive Juice Music Studios, and will also be released on Hype City in February of 2009.
Schokoladen Mitte * Ackerstr. 169 * 030 282 6527 *
Hey, I am releasing an new set of songs on the 14th of April! You can pre-order my new EP, "Joy, Joy Joy", online now at www.lions-tooth.com. Just thought you may be interested. <3
your presence is requested! Dan Bernstein's new band The Everybody Knows is playing a late set at 1 am. please oh please come by after the Antifolk Fest! xo.
I am watching you guys on the Goodbye Blue Monday Webcam! This is fun. Lemme know if you guys ever need a gal singer-helper-harmonizer, I can't help but want to jump on stage and croon sometimes with y'all!
![Ortolan [Now on iTunes]](http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/105/s_0ea669a0613e4e54b1d9e2e8f6f63edb.jpg)
