Before Wakey! Wakey!’s Mike Grubbs started making anthemic Chamber Pop/Indie Rock that sounds like a cross between Ben Folds, The Shins and Modest Mouse as produced by Van Dyke Parks, he played bar gigs for drunken collegiates, joined a Rock band working a Southern boogie groove and did time with the touring productions of Camelot and Brigadoon. Somewhere in there, he took life lessons from Lach, the leading light of New York’s anti-Folk movement, and eventually started Wakey! Wakey!, a totally unconventional outfit blending jauntily melodic Pop and obtusely fascinating Indie Rock.
W!W! turned out an impressive string of releases, including a pair of live discs, a covers album and 2009’s War Sweater EP. In one of life’s moments of weird opportunity, One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn was so taken by the band when he saw them that he not only included “War Sweater” in OTH’s season-six finale, he wrote a recurring role in the series for Grubbs, a musician/bartender named Grubbs. Ah, the magic of art imitating life.
Wakey! Wakey! headlines a Friday night show at The Mad Hatter with Spring Standards and Walk the Moon.
Get more Sound Advice on Wakey! Wakey! and show and club details here.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2010.