Isaac Brock’s protégé needn’t be modest about this remarkable debut
Produced by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, Wolf Parade’s debut LP sounds suspiciously similar to Brock’s own before-the-boards work: twitchy rhythms, half-hollered vocals, echoing pauses and squeaky, discordant guitar. Still, while Wolf Parade may be dark and spastic, its updates on indie formula—the band has connections to a mess of other Canadian guitar slingers, including The Arcade Fire, Destroyer and Frog Eyes—are undeniably impressive. “Shine A Light” (which opens the band’s self-titled EP, released earlier this summer) boasts piles of keyboard, thumping dance drums and a fist-pumping, vaguely Springsteen-like chorus of “I don’t sleep, I don’t sleep”—play it loud enough and you’ll get your whole building out of bed and into the street, hair-swinging and hip-twisting, grins all around.
(To read Paste‘s Band of the Week profile of Wolf Parade click here)