Recording: Freak Heat Waves

Artist: Freak Heat Waves

Song: Dig a Hole

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, July 23, 2015.

Freak Heat Waves - Dig a Hole

This Victoria group, currently touring as a five-piece, now sounds not unlike Mark E. Smith fronting Six Finger Satellite. Guitarist Steven Lind's vocals are the most consistent thing here — a sort of dry-witted monotone anchor for the group to hang a variety of postpunk grooves on. Some of the slower stuff felt a little stuck-in-place, as if the band were borrowing the wrong things from drum machine-era Wire. But when letting loose at higher tempos, that carefully-cultured awkwardness was overshadowed by some tasty, sweaty grooves. That attention-to-groove shifts the group towards being something increasingly distinctive, if not quite yet more than just the sum of their influences. But there's progress: to be honest, coming into this show I'd totally forgotten I'd first seen 'em a couple years ago — but this time they'll stick out in my mind more better.

[The band is passing back through town this week (Thursday, August 6th), stopping at Double Double Land for a show alongside Whimm and Mimico.]