It would be easy to forgive someone for thinking that Why? put on a mediocre live show. Their records are detailed indie/rap jaunts through frontman Yoni Wolf’s mind. His lyrics revel in distasteful, uncomfortable slices of life that take place in art-museum bathrooms and seedy alleyways. But if any part of their sound were out of place, it would all come tumbling down. Through what can only be described as raw musical talent, however, they’ve become a live force that’s shockingly original and always spot on.
Wolf has described Why?’s latest release Eskimo Snow as the least hip-hop record he’s produced thus far. It’s a fair assessment, although their last album, the critically acclaimed Alopecia, was also pretty heavy on the indie rock. That refusal to settle into any one genre, however, is where much of Why?’s spark comes from.
“If all your songs feel the same or sound the same, then you’re probably not being honest about things,” Wolf said in a phone interview. “Everybody goes through different moods and kind of time periods, and one thing just leads to another.”
Although released a year apart, the tracks on Alopecia and Eskimo Song were written at the same time by Wolf and the rest of the band.
“We teased these songs out to be Eskimo Snow songs and teased them into being Alopecia songs out of the sessions that we did back in February 2007. We made them what they were out of the songs that existed. We categorized them into being Alopecia songs and Eskimo Snow songs through some different criterea, like arrangements and lyrical content,” Wolf said.
The Bay Bridged blog also recently filmed the band performing a number of songs in an unplugged type of setting, including Pavement’s ‘Shoot the Singer.’
“Right around the time I was getting ready to do those sessions I decided to learn (Shoot the Singer) one morning after I’d had it in my head. I decided the session a coupled days later that I’d play it. I love that song, you know?”
WHAT: Why
WHEN: Sunday, 3:50 p.m.
WHERE: Orange Stage
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