The Want's proto punk-ish / industrial waved potboiler "The Motor" is a cure for today's pop vapidity

Photo credit: Madison Carroll

The musical landscape is full of vapidity and even though the population at large eats up the cold, temporary high of awfulness that is Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers like donuts laced with crack, it is, sometimes too much for me to take. I don't know what is worse, the lifeless pop drugs out there or the large corporate drug dealers? It all makes me sad, really and that is why when a potent, vibrant strain of divergent music comes across my electronic desk, I get so happy and, in some way, feel hopeful for music and art in general. This was the case when my favorite publicist (at least for this week) sent me NYC's The Wants newest single The Motor. I hit play and basically was hooked after 25 seconds in. 

The Motor, the 5th track from the bands debut album "Container" dropping on March 13th via Council Records, starts with a slow synth pitch that gives away to a fiery funk meets proto punk bass line anchored with a potent snapped drum beat. As guitars and other sounds create a sense of cold mania you can feel the hard edges moving inward. The vox are sparse with a sense of nu wave / industrial punk stoicism. In the back of my mind I am seeing flashes of the Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Bauhaus and even NIN. 

Guitarist and vocalist Madison Velding-VanDam talks about The Motor inspirations:

“The track was initially intended as an instrumental, that we adapted over time to include vocals. Whenever we play live, The Motor always seemed to be the track with the most immediacy, which inspired us to think further about how we could elevate the track to more than just a live instrumental.

I first had the epiphany for the spoken word vocals that feature in “The Motor" whilst re-watching the introduction to one of my favourite movies, David Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. In it, racing pavement reveals only level white dotted lines shrouded in darkness as David Bowie croons his sinister, 90s industrial art-rock masterpiece, “I’m Deranged”. Taking elements from this, alongside a general feeling of unstoppable locomotion, we arrived at something that captures a mood somewhere between Cybotron’s “Cosmic Cars”, Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”, and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”."


The Wants are Madison Velding-VanDam (guitar, vocals), Jason Gates (drums, electronics) and Heather Elle (bass).

As it stands, full of nihilistic tension with hope at it's edges, The Wants' The Motor is a cure for the current pop vapidity and I am grateful. 

-

Robb Donker

 

Tickets are now on sale for The Wants' upcoming Feb / March UK tour dates. See the band live at the following venues from next month. Tickets are available HERE.

Feb 26 - Bristol, The Lanes
Feb 27 - London, The Lexington
Feb 28 - Manchester, YES (Basement)
Feb 29 - Glasgow, The Poetry Club
Mar 1 - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Mar 2 - Birmingham, The Sunflower Lounge
Mar 4 - Brighton, The Hope & Ruin


THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Container was recorded and produced by ​Madison Velding-VanDam and ​Jason Gates at HANJIN, their shipping container converted to studio in a Chinese factory parking lot, as well as respective home studios. The Wants slowly drafted the record over three years, starting with their more post-punk ideas and slowly mutating to include their more adventurous interests in techno, experimental electronic, and ambient music. The process was one of constantly re-imagining a tracks’ potential, generally leaving the melody and lyrics — or the core song as it could be played on an acoustic guitar — in tact, weaving new ideas in and around the initial structures. Entire songs and versions would be scrapped after realising that they didn’t fit the overall palette and album vision, which became clearer and clearer. That the album’s polished sound was captured in the band member’s respective bedrooms and rehearsal space is a testament to their attention to detail: Velding-VanDam is a seasoned bedroom pop auteur, and Gates has a wealth of studio experience (Debbie Harry​, Angelo Badalamenti, Lykke Li, My Morning Jacket). They recruited pop and hip-hop engineer ​Jeremy Cimino (J. Cole, Pharrel) for his ability to give their rock instrumentation a fuller sound that explicitly differentiates it from the ubiquity of more genre-abiding contemporary indie recordings.