Apparently, this is the age of musicians using the word ‘honey’ in their band name. There is Oh Honey from Brooklyn, N.Y., Moon Honey from Baton Rouge, La., HoneyHoney from Los Angeles, The Locust Honey String Band from Nashville, Tenn., The Honey Chasers from Johnson City, Tenn., The Honeycutters from Asheville, N.C. and many more.
Wildhoney is a new Rock band out of Baltimore that is out to cut through the pollen-jelly-saturated world of music. The group has its roots in Punk but lately has veered toward more atmospheric, hook-laden fare. They are a part of the recent return to 1960s Psychedelia that foments every few years. A few weeks ago, Wildhoney released its latest EP, Your Face Sideways.
Back in October, Wildhoney made the news when some vinyl pressings of a Lana del Rey’s Born To Die album mistakenly contained the Baltimore quintet’s debut recording, Sleep Through It. With Rey on the cover and Wildhoney on the inside, some Rey fans were obviously not pleased, yet others were impressed by Wildhoney’s music.
When news reports came out about the vinyl mix-up, tags were put on the sound of Wildhoney like Emo and Dream Pop. However, there was another genre name thrown their way — Shoegaze. While Emo was hopelessly self-indulgent and boring, Shoegaze was a similar genre that bubbled up in the U.K. in the late ’80s and early ’90s, named after the performers’ tendency to stare at their feet while performing. The music is a wall-of-sound cacophony where the melodies and vocals are hidden deep in the mix.
Wildhoney is far from being a Shoegaze band, however, as its Pop hooks are fun and discernible, and they are out to have a good time in concert, not just stand there staring at their Chuck Taylors. The Punk influence and energy is still there in the guitar work, and the band is thankfully not afraid to be strange — in the best sense of the word.
