Wet Paint - Woe

One of my first experiences on interactive radio-player Turntable.fm introduced me to Wet Paint. I heard one song (which I'll admit, I have forgotten) and immediately went bought the album. That might seem a tad bit impulsive but the track in question was rather good. There's not a whole lot I can tell you about the band itself aside from Wet Paint is a four piece from London, due to the band having an almost un-Google-able bandname (a la Cults) but what they lack in information they more than make up for in musical ability.

It's hard to explain why I like Wet Paint so much. Maybe it's the Pavement-esque sound - of good old-fashioned 90's garage rock but with a twist. A midst the messy nostalgic jangle, frontman Babak Ganjei drawls in a style reminiscent of Hot Club de Paris' Paul Rafferty especially in "Distant Memory". And yet Wet Paint are much more than a tribute band to the sounds of 90's garage rock and other British bands. "Aim Low" and "Lynchstrumental" serves as the album's two major emotional sounding boards. Thinly accompanied, they're the moments when Ganjei's lyrics are most readily heard and stripped away from their livelier dressings.

Woe, with it's themes of powerlessness and age, is much more than the sob-story it's title might suggest. On Woe, Wet Paint with their bold guitar licks and intense energy rebel kicking and screaming against unassailable circumstance. So while the band might wear it's influences on its sleeve, it uses them aptly to drive home their points, themes, and create an album that enjoyable to listen to again and again.

Listen to Wet Paint with Pavement-esque track "Gone So Long":