Genres are funny things. People’s perception of where those demarcations lie can be even more amusing. Many, faced with guitar music built on volume and velocity, will label what they hear as rock music: if it is attitude-driven, raw and raucous, punk. Wristwatch is a band that revels in all of those things, but for me, the sound that they make is the epitome of rock and roll! Why? Well, unlike the borish, bombastic nature of most modern rock music and the repetitive, often unadventurous way punk conducts itself today, this is music with groove and melody, riff and swing, even if those important elements are often soaked and sautéed in the most abrasive flavours.
Okay, I’ll concede to punk-infused, garage rock and roll, but point out that this is a world away from those earnest, bearded chaps in big shorts making music with the same fun and effort of Sisyphus pushing that rock (geddit?) up that endless hill.
“Screwed” leads us in, an incendiary opening salvo, all musclebound melodies and the sort of sharp edges and dangerous angles that could result in the loss of a limb. With this rabid riff-roaring onslaught, the scene is set perfectly.
“Size” explains what I’m trying to say all too well, too smart to be merely labelled punk, too raw and fundamental to be just rock music. The song links the wayward fringes of rock and roll with an ancient primal scream, as if the music is an exorcism, a shamanic evocation blending sonic rites and wrongs, swerving convention and, thankfully,. comfort zones. And “Rules” takes all of this to even more extremes, everything bigger, bolder, brasher, and in its own jagged, willfully caustic way, more beautiful…at least for those with the right sonic ear for such things.
The pace is reined in slightly for “Sweet Tooth,” although that is obviously only relative to what has gone before, but the result is a wonderful, low-slung nod to punks fornmative roots. “Dü” shows Wristwatch wearing their influences on their sleeves, and “Fix” winds things up with a slice that runs unabashed and unbridled through more hardcore territory.
But whilst those with a penchant for such discussions will still want to argue about where Wristwatch sit on the musical map, one thing that we can all agree on is just how visceral this is, and that it is the attitude as much as the artistry that defines the band. Despite being the work of people who have been around the rock and roll block, for want of a better word, many times, Wristwatch still sound like a band working out who they can, and indeed want to be, still adventurous, still pushing boundaries, as if they are the formative sound of a sound, style and scene yet to be labelled, defined and hence weakened, by lazy journalists. (Not journalists like me, other lazy journalists.)
III is the sound of innocence and experience dancing hand in hand, the sound of music makers who know what they are doing yet who still revel in the wonder and sonic rewards of doing it. This is the sound of people doing what they do for all the right reasons. If it catches on with the broader audience, fine; if not, well, they are going to do it anyway.
Shouldn’t that always be the case?
