Half Metal Racket—and Half Something Much Stranger

Wildildlife are doing their damnedest to expand the parameters of
metal, in all its many permutations. And they’re going to have a laugh
or thousand while they’re at it. A local power trio that would chuckle
at that descriptor, Wildildlife may be the first band ever to draw
comparisons to Melvins and Animal Collective—in highbrow
UK magazine the Wire yet. And Wildildlife are cool with
that—and with any other reference points tossed their way. Some
such points might include Meat Puppets, Harvey Milk, and Butthole
Surfers; I hear early Swans, early Earth, Hawkwind, and Killing Joke,
too. Although mostly associated with the metal/stoner-rock
scene—they’re playing a showcase July 16 called Full Metal
Discharge—Wildildlife’s members absorb and appreciate all kinds
of music. Creation Records’ shoegaze heyday and Daft Punk have both
made huge impacts on them, they’ve had San Francisco electro-house
producers Hours of Worship remix their track “Nervous Buzzing,” and
they’re even plotting a “rave & roll” side project.

Further corrupting the classic metal-band story line, bassist Andy
Crane spent time playing with Bainbridge Island glam rockers Holy Ghost
Revival before moving eastward to attain some higher education in
Boston, where he met future Wildildlife bandmates Matt Rogers (guitar)
and Willy Nilz (drums). Rogers and Crane began jamming in a group
called Bestdeathever, which Crane describes as “hard, angular pop punk
mixed with power-grunge violence.” Nilz (“a dreadlocked freak who
moderately resembled the Predator,” says Crane) joined them after
repeatedly jabbering about Crane’s Turbonegro patches.

After completing their schooling, the trio moved to the Bay Area and
cut the Peas Feast EP (just reissued by Crucial Blast Records)
and Six album, also for Crucial Blast. (It was in San Francisco
where Wildildlife had to change their original handle, Wildlife, due to
legal pressure from a similarly named group.) After touring the country
and playing the hell out of the Bay Area, Crane moved to Seattle for
family reasons; Nilz and Rogers eventually followed him.

Now that they’re settled here, Wildildlife are ready to blast your
notions about heavy music to high heaven (or low hell, if you prefer).
“Exploring new sounds in music is a huge motivation for me,” says
Crane. “Our sound has changed a whole lot since Wildlife first started,
but [that] motivation and inspiration has stayed fairly
consistent.”

Six especially displays Wildildlife’s expansive range and
power. Averaging over 10 minutes per, the tracks contain multiple parts
and thrilling ruptures while maintaining the requisite heaviness and
textural menace to not upset the spike-braceleted hordes. It’s telling
that Six‘s most riveting piece may be “Magic Jordan,” an
18-minute psychedelic bliss-out that splits the difference between Opal
and Monster Magnet. After listening to Wildildlife, you may conclude
that they place a high premium on being unpredictable—but you’d
be wrong.

“We just work the way that we do, we write all of our songs
together, and that makes for a really wide variety,” Crane says.
“[We’re] three guys with really different tastes in music.”

“I place a high premium on being natural and trusting in the things
that come naturally to me, whether while writing or performing,” Rogers
says. “That leads to unpredictability often, but that’s not the
point.”

Wildildlife’s aesthetic—record artwork, website layout,
interview demeanor (check the Live at WFMU CD)—reveals
musicians in tune with their inner comedians. While their music’s no
joke, they do possess a sense of humor, a rarity in the metal
diaspora.

“We’re all ridiculous human beings, and it’s nice to not try and
make ourselves seem like we’re not,” says Crane. “It helps us not limit
where we want to try and go with our music.”

“Heavy metal has got to be one of the most humorless scenes you
could possibly imagine,” Rogers asserts. “Like all the KVLT [stuff]. A
lot of the music is rad, of course, but shit! Do they know how funny a
lot of that stuff is? Like the vocals?! Sounds like a kitty in heat.
And the whole subject matter/aesthetic? It’s a teenage angst fucking
riot! I love it, but I like other things, too, like fun and house
music. That being said, some of my closest buddies up here are very
metal-oriented, and they are some of the funniest people I know.”

The rest of Wildildlife’s 2009 looks action-packed. Besides blitzing
the Northwest with their labyrinthine psych-metal epics, they’re going
to appear at Missoula, Montana’s Total Fest in August and then tour the
West Coast with (fellow former Holy Ghost Revivalists) Broken Nobles.
In October, they’re holing up with RTX’s Jennifer Herrema in a Costa
Mesa, California, studio to cut an album due next year. “It’s gonna be
the coolest thing ever,” Rogers promises, and it’s safe to say he ain’t
joking.