"Spanish heat on your skin and bones / you watch me dance with a local / but I know that you are first / sometimes babe I wish you weren't..."
The soulful alt indie funk rock incarnations of "Don't Be Good To Me" by London's Sister Wanzala, brother x 3: eldest Patrick Wanzala-Ryan on guitar / vox and twins Christopher on bass and Mark on drums, feels so good in so many ways seemingly blending genres and generations at will. I love their sound that feels wonderfully airy, dramatically stripped back as a platform for their ever so dreamy vocal countenance. While you feel a kind of 90's East Coast indie incorporation of new wave, I personally feel sounds that feel adjacent to early aughts So Cal free form indie / punk too. I mean this track, in many ways feels like "Pure Violence" by iconic LA Tropical punk band Abe Vigoda's gentler sister with shades of Black Velvet Punks' jazz dipped soul punk aesthetic here too. Sister Wanzala is able to span time frames from late 70's indie and EVERY decade since and making whatever they do feel so fresh, put the trio in a time machine and they would have felt utterly at home on stages with The English Beat or The Specials and, again, during those 2000's magical times in many venues across America and across the Atlantic when the indie scene became so vibrant (once again).
Sister Wanzala may or may not be playing with my emotions, all our emotions (you be the judge):
See LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed)
[After two consecutive releases that critics have politely described as “songs”, the Wanzala-Ryan brothers return “Don’t Be Good To Me”, the last instalment of a vaguely coherent trilogy.
If the previous tracks explored romantic confusion (“Now You’re Mine”) and seasonal melancholy (“Winter Dominos”), this one dives into something even more frightening: sincerity. The band describes it as a love letter written by someone who doesn’t trust their handwriting, a plea from a partner who can’t quite believe they deserve the kindness they’re getting. Musically, Sister Wanzala continue their long-running experiment of seeing how much emotion can be squeezed out of gear that looks rescued from a church jumble sale.
And yes, this really is the end of the trilogy. After this, the band will be doing what they do best: disappearing for an undetermined amount of time, resurfacing only to remind everyone they still exist and still haven’t been signed.]
Great stuff--
so fucking great.
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/sisterwanzala
https://sisterwanzala.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sisterwanzala/
https://www.tiktok.com/@sisterwanzala
https://www.facebook.com/sisterwanzala/
https://x.com/sisterwanzala
Sister Wanzala are brothers, and ever since watching a Pink Floyd concert film at the age of 5, they have dreamed of being shy, retiring but ultimately extremely rich and famous rock stars. However, with each passing release that dream fades. A series of aimless releases follow in their wake, with some so poor the band removed them from the internet. They’re no longer young, they were never handsome and don’t understand The Tick Tock. Signs don’t look good for their new single - Now You’re Mine (2025). The band intend to drip feed a couple more singles to their ‘fans’ before calling it quits and taking up golf like all their friends.
Sister Wanzala, London UK, indie rock, alt pop, jazz dipped, soul, funk punk, tropical punk, "Don't Be Good To Me", indie rock pop trio, brothers Wanzala Ryan: Patrick / Christopher / Mark, dreamy, romance, somber pop,
No comments:
Post a Comment