Wyatt Strother’s ramshackle indie-pop solo-project-with-pals Werewolves have always betrayed aggressive political tendencies. From confronting Paul Broun Jr. (and going halfway viral in the process) to cheekily titling his label’s Kickstarter with a reference to Marx, Wyatt’s folksy bells-and-whistles output has always had an anarcho-punk bent lying somewhere underneath. With Wereelk, his new “alternative black metal/noise/experimental/ambient/hip hop soundgasm project” (his words), he’ll be supplanting his political furor with aggressive music in its place. Sort of.
“I guess it’s kind of a joke in a way,” he says. “But it’s also short, so people won’t have to sit through much.” Wereelk first debuted shortly before Halloween of 2010, with a live show that included backing tracks of banjos and white noise. Over the din, there’s live implementation of the sort of blastbeating drumming that Wyatt only hinted at while in the percussion seat for Eureka California. Strobe lights, projectors, and a mask are also involved. Lay it all out for us, Wyatt: “The difference is with Werewolves, I’m trying to make music that’s, like, good. And with Wereelk, I just try to be really ridiculous, I guess.”
When Wyatt originally moved to town, he was performing in a solo-project-that-was-really-solo called My Greatest Heist, which he describes as “more bordering on the aggressive side, more post rock or even almost hardcore punk.” In transitioning into the Werewolves project, who are currently recording a new album, Wyatt adopted an E6-meets-Belle & Sebastian aesthetic that was more punk in attitude than anything else. “I love pop music and catchy songs,” Wyatt says, “but yeah, a lot of people might be really surprised to see that I still respond to really aggressive music.” Politics will likely have little to do with it. Boston’s Olde Growth and local freaks the Fuzzlers will be also be performing.
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