San Francisco/New York post-punk outfit Wild Decade like to get right to the point. The band writes songs that are rhythmically aggressive and spiked with a punk fervor, while also doling out off-kilter guitar riffs and oddly memorable melodies. Previously going under the moniker of Bad Bibles, songwriters Phil Maves and Dan Leech make music that draws from influences and inspirations as diverse as The Pixies and No Age, but these musical signposts aren’t merely creative placeholders. Wild Decade form their own distinctive pop/rock aesthetic and wade through its constantly shifting structure without breaking a sweat. On their debut LP, Conductor (out now), they run through eleven songs in 35 minutes, wielding brevity and lacerating guitarwork in equal measure.
For the video to single “The Statue Talks To Me,” the band blends clips of autumnal landscapes with the band’s frenetic live performance. Directed by band member Phil Maves and filtered through a Super 8 lens, the video was shot over a handful of days between upstate New York and San Francisco. Stacking sneering punk riffage against an elastic melody, the band embrace their pop-punk heritage and find room to expand the genre while still maintaining the slick facade that comes with the territory — though slick is relative, the music still feels jarring and unpredictable. There’s something to be said for understanding the mechanics of the genre within which you work, and Wild Decade have it down to an art.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the video for “The Statue Talks To Me,” taken from Wild Decade’s debut album, Conductor.
