It never pays to try and pin a band’s sound down, but I will say that if “Get Your Coat,” from their fantastic Doom EP, reveals Goddamn Wolves more country vibes, “I Hate This Song” plays into their more rock and roll urges. Or at least their rootsy-indie-rock urges, a description that proves that such things can’t be explained in a linear, that plus that equals this, sort of way. To better understand the song, you need to listen to it without trying to pigeonhole it. Isn’t that always the way?
Do that, and you find a song that stands firmly in a modern, guitar-rich, indie rock place but also echoes with the sound of some earlier classic sounds, such as those made by people like The Gin Blossoms and Soul Asylum.
It is not only a great slice of timeless music made where rock and pop, indie and roots-rock all wash over each other but it also speaks to the total infectiousness and relentless marketing that turn average songs into global phenomena, making those responsible fleetingly famous… at least I think that’s what they are saying.
Released as an a-side/b-side package (remember those kids?), it comes with “See How It Goes” as its sonic traveling companion, a song that grew out of chords inspired by the sound of Stax Records but which sounds about as Stax as do The Pixies or Sonic Youth, while employing some brilliant boy/girl vocal playoffs.
So, what have we learned? Bands should, and indeed must, be free to wander all over the musical map. There is no such thing as individual genres, as they all bleed into and cut through one another. Never judge a band by what their last single sounded like. Yes, all this and more besides.
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