REVIEW: Wildmen - Wildmen

After a lot of buildup - Italy's Wildmen have just this week unleashed their self-titled debut on an unsuspecting world. It's down, dirty, fuzzy and completely worthy of your attention. We've previously featured advance singles and a joint 7" they did with Caputtini 'I Lignu, so this album has been eagerly anticipated.

Here's the first single, "Haters Gonna Hate" - first, a video of a live radio performance in Poland, then the track from the album:

As previously noted, it's a terrific song. Tribal drumbeat, guitars played with wild abandon, shouted vocals... and yet, it's not my favorite on the album. That honor goes to "Zero Generation" - a slightly off-kilter reference to a number of punk concepts dating back to Richard Hell's "Blank Generation", with a musical style that's dating back before that, to the musical style that's become 2013's unofficial theme here on When You Motor Away: the psychedelic garage-based proto-punk around which the Nuggets compilations were built. Psychedelic artyfacts, indeed:

Truly, these characters seem to have imbibed lo-fi 60's rock from birth. I like the way "Migrant Love" sort of echoes "Outlaw Blues", and the surf drumroll that leads into "Crazy":

Here's a video for "20,000 $" - love the drumming on this one, as well as full stops and the extreme hillbilly "hoo-hoo!" about halfway through. You can't fake enthusiasm - and it's clear these guys love what they are doing:



It's from the delightful Italian/Portuguese label Shit Music For Shit People - who have quickly become a favorite at WYMA. You can buy it digitally here, and order an LP here. And you probably already know you should, because your friends are going to hear it and ask "What the hell is this?" and "Where did you get it?"