Photo by @ojslaughter
You could kinda call Dad Jeans a sound wizard. On top of making releasing their music and a handful of music videos, they also builds guitar pedals and synth hardware. In the past, they’ve worked with Haasan Barclay, with whom they have forged a close creative partnership. “Haasan is one of the most inspiring and incredible artists in Boston for me, and I feel so lucky to know him and be his friend.” The Rochester-native-turned-Bostonian-turned-Californian has been living in various places around the country for the past few years, but has recently settled in Long Beach, where he’s been prepping new tunes for the second half of 2019. And they’ve still got Boston in their heart, coming through with a hot take on the Pixies’ classic “Wave of Mutilation,” which comes to build hype for an EP called Bottomless that’ll drop in the fall later this year.
Dad Jeans’ take on the Pixies’ classic is one of those quintessentially perfect covers, capturing in essence the spirit of what made the track good in the first place, but also generating a new spin on it. On their cover, Dad Jeans keeps the verses relatively mellow, their digitized voice almost crooning over a textured synth line, more reminiscent of contemporary, melodic R&B than the Pixies alt-rock defining guitar sound. But Dad Jeans shifts up about three gears for when the chorus hits, bringing in sharp guitars, snappy drums, and an overall quicker tempo, verging more into noisy punk.
cover art by @digimane
And it’s this sudden, dramatic shifting of mood that hits so impactfully that makes this a perfectly unique interpretation while also a clever homage to the Massachusetts rock legends: the Pixies made a career not out of not just writing beautifully heavy, devilishly catchy tunes, but also out of their tactful incorporation of extreme dynamic shifting. One second they’d be bringing the overall levels down, getting real quiet, then all of a sudden, almost out of nowhere (though we always know it’s coming) they hit you with an explosive wave of sound and rhythm.
While their original “Wave of Mutilation” wasn’t necessarily an example of this (“Tame” might be a closer benchmark), Dad Jeans captures the essence of what made their predecessors so damn addictive to begin with, while filtering through a contemporary lens and into their musical landscape. They understand the challenge he’s undertaking here: “This is probably my favorite pixies song besides maybe U-Mass, or Debaser, and I hope in some sense I did it justice by approaching it with the same frenetic and experimental perspective that I love the Pixies for. The song gives me this feeling that I’m just being swept around the ocean floor by powerful forces outside my control. That could be a terrifying realization but I find it comforting and a reminder that I’m on a beautiful journey through a strange world.”
May we all take comfort in a little Pixies every now-and-then. You can listen to Dad Jeans’ take on “Wave of Mutilation” below via Bandcamp (also available on Soundcloud and Youtube), and keep an eye out for Bottomless later this year!