WEEP WAVE
In the studio - Photo by Travis Trautt
"Weep Wave hasn’t released a record since its 2019 debut, but that doesn't mean the burly beast has been silent. The Seattle, Washington-based, post-punk/psych rock trio has steadily released singles, and tirelessly toured, earning tight chops and homing in on a hypnotic and trippy heavy-with-melody aesthetic.
Now, the band has newly inked a deal with CorpoRAT Records and will issue its sophomore record, Speck, out April 5th. The 11-song album strikes the perfect mix of melancholy and optimism. The album features acid-laced existential lyrics, labyrinthine song structures, and brawny stoner rock guitar riffs offset by ambient synth-driven soundscapes. Speck was produced by Dylan Wall (feeble little horse, Craft Spells), and mastered by Sub Pop/1990s grunge and indie-rock legend, Jack Endino. Speck will be digitally released as a series of singles, and available physically on pink, white, and black splatter vinyl via CorpoRAT.
“This album explores existentialist concepts like being a little dude among the stars. Sometimes the lyrics are sincere, and, sometimes, I poke fun at this stuff. I will say, though, the album came out way more inspirational than I intended,” confesses the trio’s primary singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Dylan Fuentes.
Weep Wave formed in 2016, and has coalesced around Dylan, drummer and synth wiz Miles Hubbard, and bassist Mitch Midkiff. The trio has toured extensively nationwide, sharing stages with a diverse roster of indie-rock and alt-rock artists. Weep Wave has earned KEXP’s highly-coveted song of the day. Most recently, Seattle’s legendary alternative biweekly newspaper, The Stranger, has hyped Weep Wave’s new music through an interview feature.
Speck is an immersive album that wafts a type of pot addled positivity that intoxicates as much as it provokes thought. The album’s songwriting jettisons conventional verse-chorus song structures in favor of thrilling arrangements with non-repeating motifs and heaps of ever-morphing ear candy. Tracks like “Conscious Dust,” “Alternate Reality,” and “Phasing” favor the mud-caked guitar riffage of 1990s grunge and desert rock. “Rebirth Mantra” explores the mangled dissonant melodics of Sonic Youth albeit with a spoonful of trippy electronic textural touches. Weep Wave explores slowly blossoming song structures lavished with dreamy atmospherics on the evocatively-titled songs “Slow Collapse,” “Stars & Sea,” and “Micro Details of The Universe.” Speck concludes with two explosions of beauty, “Never Wake Up” and “Credits to my Life,” and then the album evaporates away.” - Lorne Behrman
Weep Wave is Dylan Fuentes (Guitar/Vox) • Miles Hubbard (Drums/Synth) • Mitch Midkiff (Bass)
Find out more at the band’s website: Weep Wave