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Wailin’ Storms Wails on “Hurricane Trashwave”

mark-maya-photography-wailin-storms

“Hurricane Trashwave” announces its arrival to the world with a bass powering through a torrent of sound. The two-note motif, as post-punk as cigarette ash on black denim, is beset on all sides by squalling guitar feedback and an insistent floor tom and shaker combo. No matter how loud the song gets — and it gets quite loud — that bass is unstoppable. The world crashes around us, but some things are eternal, weathering any storm.

The bass is the body of Wailin’ Storms, but their heart is singer Justin Storms. Storms’ voice is more conventionally rock ‘n’ roll than most other post-punk vocals. Nothing about him is terse or tense. Instead, he bellows and yelps, letting the end of his phrases waver and fray. It’s the kind of performance that suggests both power and vulnerability.

Storms’ face also serves as the focal point for “Hurricane Trashwave,” superimposed against a flurry of images. On the one hand, it’s a pragmatic way of reminding you that the focus here is the band and their music, but it’s also a simple and effective way of visualizing the song’s interior world.

Drawing directly from Storms’ lyrics, the video feels like an Americana fever dream. Oceans are given a neon, radioactive red glow; crosses shake, rusted cars drive down abandoned highway roads. A human skull melts into the image of bed cloth stretching and straining, the strings of a guitar fade in parallel with power lines. The road, the beyond, sex, death; the essential ingredients to any great American rock song.

“Hurricane Trashwave” is the second single from the band’s upcoming album Sick City. Like “Irene Garza,” it suggests that the band have sharpened their songwriting since 2015’s One Foot In The Flesh Grave, accentuating their blues influence and tunefulness without losing an ounce of their power. Watch the video for “Hurricane Trashwave” below.

Pre-order Sick City here. Follow Wailin’ Storms on Facebook here.