The cover of Holy Wave‘s new album, i’m DADA, flat-out tells us “This is gonna be magical.” #Accurate
Recorded with their pals Lorelle Meets the Obsolete (with whom they’d also collaborated on their excellent album Five of Cups) and Joo Joo Ashworth of Froth, Holy Wave headed into the desert to not only record, but also to dive into heady subjects like fatherhood, finding and losing love, being present in an age where everything is grabbing for your attention, and, as you can guess by the album cover, art and its place in a world where programs that claim to make art “accessible” just make it cheaper and soulless.
“US 54” refers to a highway that cuts diagonally through New Mexico’s southwest corner and sets the album, band, and us on a journey that you know if going to open up some philosophical stuff. The cheekily named “s33.u.in./HAL” has wild, fuzzy guitars and slightly creepy samples while they look for meaning in caveman diets, self-help video streams, and other stuff that they secretly know is meaningless.
The bass groove of “happy song” lets you know it might not be all that happy, and then you hear the grumpy hornets-like guitars and think, “Yeah, maybe this title is ironic.” The keyboards and synths on “first DAE” are bright, shiny, and fun while the lyrics speak of chastising oneself for not figuring out something in a relationship that might not even be your fault (“No ‘How do you do’s?’, no ‘I love you’s.'”).
“lull” draws you in with its muted vocals and intriguing sounds, and soon you’re in a trance with the whole band. The title track is a trippy one, often sounding like it’s melting in the New Mexico sun. Dadaists loved deconstructing and reconstructing art forms, and the track (and album) sounds like something they took apart, put back together, and created a new thing. “unison” is another good example. Weird, space age synths mix with tight drumming, what might be an accordion or harmonium, and vocals sung through an inter-dimensional mirror. “too one” is what you hear when you walk through that inter-dimensional mirror.
“to other” is a synth bliss-out as you float through the new dimension Holy Wave have created. They’ve taken chords and sounds and stretched, shaped, and soothed them into something you’re not sure you can describe (again, like Dadaist art). The album ends with “dewey’s dirge,” a song that begins with “So long, farewell, goodbye…” and the band turning up the volume, echo, and fuzz instead of going out on a mellow note.
When I interviewed Holy Wave back in May of this year, they told me they almost called the album Art Department since they all have different forms of art they enjoy and create outside of music ranging from film to food. They love collaborating and how such team-ups help everyone create something they and we didn’t expect.
L-R: Yours truly, Julian Ruiz, Joey Cook, Ryan Fuson
Three of the psych-rocker lads from Holy Wave, Julian Ruiz (drums), Joey Cook (guitar), and Kyle Hager (keyboards, guitars, vocals) were kind enough to sit down with me outside the Far Out Lounge at this year’s Austin Psych Fest not long after their as-usual fine set Friday night. We talked about their latest album, Five of Cups, working with Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, horror movies, ramen, and lyrics changing on the fly.
7th Level Music: Good set as always. Every time I’ve seen you guys, it just kills. The Studio 22 and B-Sides album just came out, which is great. Thanks for putting that out there. What are you working on now?
Julian Ruiz: That was about fifty percent new songs [during our set].
Joey Cook: We’ve got a new record coming out July 10th (i’mDADA).
Kyle Hager: Did you say you DJ at Notre Dame?
7LM: Yeah, I’ve been DJing there for twenty-plus years.
JC: I think that might have been the first we heard of us [being played] on college radio. [Would that have bee] when Relax came out (2014)?
7LM: Yes, since Relax.
JC: Yeah, we got an e-mail saying, “You guys are on this radio station,” and we were like, “What? There’s somebody at a college radio station playing us?”
7LM: Speaking of Relax, I’m a horror movie geek, so whose idea was it to put Nosferatu on the cover?
JR: That’s the one guy who’s not here (lead singer Ryan Fuson).
JC: Me and Andy (Julian) came up with the album title.
KH: That (image) was the counter to “relax,” I guess.
7LM: Was there any word about Frankie Goes to Hollywood jokes?
JC: That what it came from. We were playing a show at (downtown Austin venue) Cheer Up Charlies and I would see that [Frankie Goes to Hollywood] shirt that would just say “Relax” on it.
JR: I love those shirts.
JC: I thought, “We should call the album Relax.”
KH: It’s a good fuckin’ message though.
7LM: It is. You know, I was going to bring that up. Jumping ahead, the messages on Five of Cups are even more relevant now…Trying to stay positive in this environment.
KH: Yeah, it’s…it’s been a decade so far.
7LM: That’s a good way to put it…It’s been a decade for sure.
KH: We’re probably closer to what people experienced in the Forties or Sixties, at least in my lifetime.
JC: We thought Interloper was the sad state of affairs record, and we had no idea what was coming.
KH: We didn’t know how sad it was going to get. We recorded it in 2019 and put it out in July 2020. It was right after the pandemic, we released a new record and were like, “Fuck…”
JC: And we had momentum. We were touring a shit-ton, and we were just on our game and then it was like, “Okay…”
7LM: Was working with Lorelle Meets the Obsolete [on Five of Cups] something you’d tried to do for a while and it finally worked out?
JC: Yeah, we meant to record at their place in Ensenada (Mexico) in 2021 and I was working here at a food truck and I broke my finger and had to have surgery on it. We had all planned this trip to go record there and I had to not go because I had to have the surgery, but we finally made it out there last year and did a record with them.
KH: The new record has them on several tracks. Lorena (Quintanilla) sings one of the songs on it again (as she does on Five of Cups’ “The Darkest Timeline”).
7LM: Are there any other bands you’re hoping to work with?
JC: The guy who produced the new record is Joo Joo Ashworth. He played in a band called Froth.
JR: He produced and engineered the whole thing.
JC: We’ve been friends with him for a long time and always wanted to collaborate with him. We’ve always loved Froth and everything he touches. He was, even more than Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, more of a collaborator on the record. The tone of it, and stuff like that.
JR: It was a culmination of a plan we’d been trying to do for so long.
JC: It was such a bummer when I broke my finger. My doctor said, “You’re never playing guitar again.” He did a great job, though. I barely play now.
7LM: Are you doing any more touring soon?
JC: Yeah, this fall we’ll be doing tours. East coast, Europe, then west coast in the fall.
JR: We’ll be in Chicago [at the Empty Bottle] August 13th.
7LM: This is something I ask every band I interview: Do you have any favorite misheard versions of your song lyrics?
JC: We make our own versions.
KH: Ryan also changes the lyrics.
JC: He doesn’t remember his lyrics.
JR: Ryan always keeps everyone on their toes.
JC: We create alternate versions every single night.
KH: I don’t even remember what the chorus of “Western Playland” (from Freaks of Nuture) is, but I know that Ryan sings the way the Brazilian guys sing it. When we were in São Paulo, he was like, “Oh, that’s better.” He just sings what they came up with.
7LM: I asked Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers that, and he told me he loves when that happens because it means the song takes on a whole new meaning for each listener.
JR: Yeah, for sure, and I’m glad they’re listening to the lyrics.
7LM: Is there a way you choose who sings what? Kyle, is there a time when Ryan says, “You know what, you should sing this.” or vice-versa?
KH: Me and Ryan bring ideas to the table, but also, especially when Julian writes a song sometimes he already has a vocal idea and he sings it, but a lot of times either me or Ryan will gravitate towards singing.
JR: They’re the main singers, so when we have ideas we go to them.
KH: If one of us says, “Hey, I’ve got a vocal idea for this,” then we’ll start running with it.
JC: We would rather them sing.
KH: It happens pretty organically. It’s not like, “I’m singin’ this one!” It’s like, “I’ve got a cool idea. What do you guys think?”
JC: What instrument you play on the song is determined by who shows up first. Everyone wants to play the bass line first.
JR: I think Ryan really wants to be the drummer.
KH: We don’t switch [instruments] as much on stage much anymore. Half of the stuff that I’m playing, even from the old stuff, but especially from the new stuff, that’s not what I wrote on the song. The guitar parts on the new songs, its half stuff I wrote on guitar, half stuff somebody else wrote on guitar, plus what somebody else wrote on keyboard a little bit.
JC: Sometimes you have to hear your part being played by something or someone else. We have backing tracks with three of us playing guitar on the same song, and none of the keyboards get to be played, so you think, “Oh, there’s my keyboard part.”
7LM: You guys have so many psychedelic influences, but are there other outside ones? There are some songs where I think, “That’s almost a metal riff.” or there was some stuff you were putting down, Julian, that made me think, “That’s almost like krautrock.”
JR: Oh yeah.
JC: I think we’re all super into that krautrock stuff.
KH: Growing up in El Paso, everything was heavy music. That was the scene we all came up in. We all started off playing in hardcore and hardcore-adjacent bands.
[At this point, Alex Maas of The Black Angels stopped by to say hello, and, “I wasn’t able to see your set, but I heard several people said they laid down and closed their eyes, and just melted into the ground.” He also described Holy Wave’s sound as “an enchanted scroll” to his son.]
JR: It (“holy wave”) is a spell…
JC: There is a card in Digimon called “Holy Wave.”
7LM: Now I have to ask, are you guys gamers?
JC: Me and my wife play Mario Party a lot. We play FIFA a lot.
KH: Legend of Zelda is the only thing I really game hard with.
7LM: I run a D&D games almost every week with some buddies of mine. I once wrote a whole campaign based on The Sword’s Age of Winters album.
KH: Oh, that’s cool.
JC: The guitarist from The Sword, Kyle (Shutt), is a good friend of mine. He’s a coworker of mine. He’s a bad ass dude.
JR: A legend. Ryan’s super into board games.
KH: The guy who’s going on tour with us, Dylan, is the guy to talk to about D&D.
JC: He was having D&D parties during the pandemic.
7LM: I always like to ask this: I once heard an interview with Ray Charles in which he said he sometimes got bummed out because people only wanted to talk with him about music. So, is there stuff outside of music you guys are really interested in or are fascinated with?
JC: Food. In the van, it’s like a constant list of grocery items and food stylings.
KH: Geopolitical hypotheses.
JR: Kyle is like a history master. Everywhere we go, he tells us what’s going on.
7LM: Any particular part of history?
KH: I majored in anthropology and minored in history, so I wanted to be able to put things into a cultural perspective to help everybody respect the meaning of a place. Like, was it a river that led people to live here? Was it a railroad that ran through here? Why does this city exist? Why are there enough people here that some of them would come to a Holy Wave show? I like know that when I go to a place.
JC: Everyone kind of works in TV and film. We all do art department stuff.
KH: If anybody out there needs something…
JC: Holy Wave Art Department! We almost titled the next record Art Department.
JR: When we stay [with friends] in Phoenix, there’s usually a horror movie going on in the background. [Last time], it was Terrifier. Insane, dude. I’m kind of a scaredy cat, but that one was kind of light-hearted in a way.
KH: That one’s weird. It’s weird to think about what the crew was doing while they were filming. That’s what creepy to me.
JR: Yeah, someone’s just eating a slice of pizza. It’s like, “Oh God, lunch was supposed to me thirty minutes ago and he’s still going…”
JC: Last year, we all worked on an indie movie (Two Sleepy People), and I was the art director, and Justin was, too. Ryan was the production designer. We went and saw the movie in the theatre and we were putting all this stuff in there, so we were saying, “There’s Andy’s couch!”, and the main character, he’s looking in the fridge, and he closes the fridge, and there’s a picture of Kyle smoking a cigarette. You can Easter egg yourself into some shit.
7LM: The first or second Psych Fest I ever came to, my late wife and I ate at his ramen place where I was told some of you guys used to work.
JC: (the long-since closed) Daruma?
7LM: Yes! I miss that place. Our waiter asked us who we were excited to see and we told him, “Holy Wave.” He said, “Oh, man! A couple of those guys work here. They probably made that broth you’re eating.”
JR: I worked there for, like, seven years.
JC: Yeah, he was in the kitchen, and Eric, our bass player worked there.
KH: Joey kind of worked there.
JC: Yeah, I worked for the company. At one point, we all worked at a ramen shop. What’s crazy is that our new bass player who’s filling in for Eric after this show, he also worked there. He was a server there. He was our bass player before Eric.
7LM: So, where should we get ramen now?
JR: There’s a place right there (pointing across the street), Tatsu-ya.
KH: That’s where Ryan works.
JC: If you want that Daruma ramen, they have it at Komei. That’s more of a sushi spot.
7LM: When we came back and saw Daruma was closed, we were like, “Nooo!”
JR: It’s so good.
JC: Yeah, it’s the best one.
Holy Wave melting people into the ground at Austin Psych Fest 2026.
I hadn’t been to Austin Psych Fest in several years. Mind you, I’d been to Levitation festivals multiple times, and on two continents, but I hadn’t been to APF since the Reverberation Appreciation Society brought it back after “APF” had been changed to “Levitation” and moved to the fall. APF returned to the Far Out Lounge in Austin a few years ago for the RAS’ spring festival, and this was the first chance I had to make the trip.
Austin’s own J’cuuzi were the first band on the bill and the first I wanted to see. They set a high bar to meet for everyone to follow, complete with dancers, t-shirt tosses, a somewhat famous spinning chair, a Capri Sun costume, bubble guns, and so much dance-punk / art-punk / glam-punk / drag-punk / I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-is-happening-punk that you could barely take all of it in during their set and left you feeling a bit post-orgasmic and somewhat baffled afterwards.
L-R: Durs, Gorge Bones, Trey Razeldazl. Oddly enough, this was one of the calmer moments of J’cuuzi’s set.
Next up were another local group, Almost Heaven. The electro-duo were celebrating the release of their first EP, Raw Cranium, and immediately commanded the stage upon the first note. The whole set was bumping, with solid, wicked beats from Jaelyn Valero and vocals from Stefan Barazza that reminded me of everything from The Cramps to Roxy Music.
Almost Heaven getting us pretty close to there, really.
Within moments of their set ending, you heard this loud wall of sound coming from the other direction. That turned out to be shoegaze rockers Glare blasting us with multiple guitars and echoing vocals. It was a change in tone for the festival up to this point, and not a bad one at all. Sometimes you need a ton of reverb and fuzz to keep you going for the coming hours.
Glare blasting us with power.
Not long after that, we dove into psychedelic waters (It is a psych fest, after all.) with Holy Wave. I’ve been a fan for a while, so it was good to see them again after a few years. As usual, they put on a good set of psych-rock that ranged from dreamy to heavy. I bumped into The Black Angels’ Alex Maas later and he described their sound as “like opening a scroll.” Accurate.
Casting spells with Holy Wave.
I needed a break by this point, so it was off to Torchy’s Tacos across the street for some much-needed grilled chicken nachos. They were delicious, as was the Cubs working their way to a win over the Rangers at the time. I got back in time to see a big crowd had gathered for Diiv and their trippy set of shoegaze rock that mixed in weird short films of corporate presentations and public domain footage. It reminded me of Devo’s corporate anthem stuff.
Diiv putting on a board meeting.
The night ended with a fun set from The Flaming Lips. The crowd was happy to have them back and they seemed delighted to be there. Confetti and balloons rained down on us for several songs, with “Turn It On” and “The Golden Path” being big highlights for me, as well as their encore of “War Pigs.” Everyone was exhausted but elated by the end.
A typical day for Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips.
The festival is off to a fun, sweaty start. Up next, more local talent, a guy I haven’t seen live for many years, Italian shoegaze, a twentieth anniversary show, and more!
Recorded in 2022 while they had some extra days in Los Angeles after the end of a U.S. west coast tour, Holy Wave got together with Osees‘ Tomas Dolas and knocked out a few singles…and then a couple more when they realized they had the makings of a groovy EP on their hands. That became the Studio 22 Singles and B-Sides album.
The opening drum fill by Julian Ruiz on “chaparral” immediately drops you into lovely headspace, and Kyle Hager‘s slightly distant vocals and sunlight-breaking-through-the-clouds synths guide you along a river made of melted ice cream. “time crisis too” is even brighter and lusher, with Hager’s synths sounding like a backing choir and Joey Cook‘s acoustic guitar work feeling like a happy cat prancing around your house as the sun rises.
The acoustic guitars return for “cowprint” — a song about being fascinated by a potential lover and watching them from afar. The song transforms by the second half into a synth and electric piano-driven bit of mellow psych-rock. Speaking of mellow, the delightful “father’s prayer” will be your new favorite 1970s toe-tapper…and it was made in 2022!
“bog song” floats along like cat tail fluff over a bog on a bright day. Cook’s guitar solo on it is never forceful, but centers the whole track, and Ryan Fuson‘s piano takes you by the hand and along all the safe places to walk in the bog. Fuson is subtly and cleverly all over the background of the record, actually, adding details (with multiple instruments) that would cause the songs to sound odd if they were absent.
I love that the albums ends (after the brief, slightly goofy “away here”) with an almost meditative instrumental — “string performer.” It’s just guitars, synths, piano, quiet bass, and little, if any, percussion. It’s lovely.
The whole record is. They captured a neat moment when recording this, and thanks to them for sharing it with us.
Depending on whom you ask, the Five of Cups tarot card can symbolize disappointment, regret, or being stuck in a past you won’t leave. If the card is presented upside-down, it can mean you’ve moved on from such things, or are about to do so.
Austin, Texas psych-rockers Holy Wave seemed to have a mixture of both feelings when they made their newest album, Five of Cups. They’ve openly discussed how, with tours being canceled and venues closing all over the world, that a career in music was pretty much a bust. The world was full of pessimism and anger. Thankfully, instead of succumbing to all of it, they channeled the energy into this record.
The weird synths that boldly open title track set us off on an introspective journey as Ryan Fuson sings about fat cats getting fatter while the rest of us spend most of our time in a metaphorical hamster wheel to keep those cats fat. For such despairing lyrics, the song is rather lovely. “Bog Song” is just as lovely, with bright guitars from Fuson and Kyle Hager throughout it. I’m not sure if Fuson’s guitar or Julian Ruiz‘s drums are trippier on “Chaparral,” but Hager’s electric piano and synths add a nice slice of 1970s psych to the already smoky track. In it, the band make references to their original home town of El Paso, Texas and both the good and not-so-good things they left there when they moved to Austin to pursue that music career that would be derailed (along with everyone else’s) in 2019.
The find the best way to ride out the bad energy of the last couple years on “Path of Least Resistance.” Be like water, my friend. I mean, the guitars on this track certainly flow and (holy) wave like those at a Texas beachfront. They keep walking their groovy Zen path (with Joseph Cook‘s bass leading the way) on “Nothing Is Real.” The past to which you’re clinging? It’s not real. It never was. The future about which you’re stressing? That’s not real either. It never will be. The dreamy instrumentation and vocals encourage you to be here now. The present is the only real thing.
We all felt some sense of “Hypervigilance” at some point in the last four years, and many still feel it. “I’m not like you, ’cause they can’t find me,” Fuson sings, wanting to get away from everyone and everything, but knowing in his heart that such a path can lead to madness. He decides to find solace in truth (“I have a secret power. I can see through your shit.”) and, again, just be here now with that truth. The sound of “The Darkest Timeline” seems to indicate it was recorded in an empty pool, an abandoned theatre, a ghost town, or a shopping mall with only five stores left in it. In other words, it sounds amazing (and gets added flair from Mexican psych-duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete helping out on the track).
By the time we get to “Nothing in the Dark,” Holy Wave are cranking the fuzz and vocal distortions as if to obliterate their fears and ours of what’s lurking outside our homes. The album ends with “Happier,” and the band, and us, coming out of that scary darkness into bright light, turning that Five of Cups card upside-down and deciding to move on from all of it.
If you’re going through hell, keep going. Don’t stop and hang out there. That’s the message of Five of Cups. You can get through it. You can emerge happier. I’m glad they did.
Today, Austin, Texas outfit Holy Wave continue to push their historically psychedelic sound with intricate, heady single “Nothing in the Dark”, premiering on post-trash. It’s accompanied by a beautifully-shot, atmospheric visual, directed by Vanessa Pla. The track follows airy “Bog Song,” and psych-tinged single “Happier” featuring Mint Field’s Estrella del Sol.
Both songs taken from their upcoming new album Five of Cups, out August 4, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records.
The band have also announced further US + UK/EU fall tour dates.
On the track, band member, Cook offers: “Nothing in the Dark is about how easy it is to let fear take over and control what you do and don’t do, how distractions can keep you from the things you want or disguise themselves as what you want. But when the light disappears from your life, like shadows, the distractions fade away, and you’re left with just yourself and the darkness. So I guess the song is about moving past the fear of the shadows; you can see in the light so that you don’t end up sitting alone in the dark.”
On the video, band member, Fuson offers: “We all acted in the video, but we also did the set design and all the props. Since it was a super small budget, we had to wear a bunch of hats to afford to pay the people who were good at their jobs, haha. The director Vanessa Pla also made some mean carnitas for the crew. They were fire.”
Tour dates Live Dates Aug 8 – Andy’s – Denton, TX Aug 9 – Opolis – Norman, OK Aug 11 – Back Alley Ballyhoo – Indianapolis, IN Aug 12 – JJs Bohemia – Chattanooga, TN Aug 13 – Upstairs at Avondale – Birmingham, AL Aug 15 – Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL Aug 16 – Continental Club – Houston, TX Aug 17 – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX Oct 12 – Constellation Room – Santa Ana, CA Oct 14 – Sister – Albuquerque, NM Oct 15 – Hi-Dive – Denver, CO Oct 17 – Sleeping Village – Chicago, IL Oct 18 – Lager House – Detroit, MI Oct 20 – No Fun – Troy, NY Oct 21 – Mercury Lounge – NYC, NY Oct 22 – Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY Oct 23 – Metro Baltimore – Baltimore, MD Oct 25 – Gasa Gasa – New Orleans, LA Oct 26 – Levitation – Austin, TX Oct 29 – Love Buzz – El Paso, TX Oct 30 – The Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ Oct 31 – Casbah – San Diego, CA Nov 1 – Lodge Room – Highland Park, CA 11/7 – Lille, FR – L’Aéronef 11/8 – Groningen, NL – Vera 11/9 – Copenhagen, DK – Stengade 11/10 – Berlin, DE – Kesselhaus 11/11 – Halle, DE – Huhnermanhattan 11/12 – Prague, CZ – Cafe V Lese 11/13 – Munich, DE – Milla 11/16- Bucharest, RO – Control Club 11/17 – Belgrade, SE – Dom Onladine 11/19 – Zagreb, HR – Vintage Industrial 11/21 – Lyon, FR – Le Sonic 11/22 – Barcelona, ES – Sala Upload 11/23 – San Sebastian, ES – Dabadaba 11/24 – Madrid, ES – Wurlitzer Ballroom 11/28 – Vigo, ES – Kominski 11/30 – Bordeaux, FR – Allez Les Filles 12/1 – Paris, FR – Point Ephemere 12/2 – Brussels, BE – Botanique 12/3 – The Hague, NL – Hink Festival 12/4 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso 12/6 – Brighton, UK – The Hope & Ruin 12/7 – Bristol, UK – Crofters Rights 12/8 – Manchester, UK – YES 12/9 – Glasgow, UK – Stereo 12/10 Newcastle, UK – Cluny 2 12/11 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club 12/12 – London, UK – Moth Club
Keep your mind open.
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Today, Austin, Texas band Holy Wave continue to push their historically psychedelic sound in an airy, ‘90s-indebted direction on the single “Bog Song”. The dream-poppy track is accompanied by a retro futuristic visual, put together by band member Ryan Fuson and animator Joshua Kirk Ryan. It follows psych-tinged single “Happier” which features Mint Field’s Estrella del Sol. Both songs taken from their upcoming new album Five of Cups, out August 4, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records. The band also have select upcoming US tour dates this summer.
On the track, Fuson offers: “Bog Song is a recounting of a trip I took with my dad in Idaho while he was guiding some elk hunters. I was both in awe of the landscape and wildlife while also feeling conflicted about our reasons for being in the mountains. I would sit in the dark, before the sun would come up, and look into the mountains and hills for elk. Sometimes seeing headlights cruising along some mountain road and I would wonder what their drivers intentions were and if the animals in those mountains ever watched headlights like those and wondered the same.”
In Tarot readings, the Five of Cups card signifies loss and grief. Depicting a cloaked figure with a bowed head looming over three spilled chalices while ignoring two remaining vessels, the Five of Cups is generally interpreted as representing a forlorn dwelling on the past and an inability to appreciate the positive things in the present. It was this card that struck a chord with vocalist/guitarist Ryan Fuson, member of the Austin TX subversive subterranean pop outfit Holy Wave, during a Tarot reading at the height of the pandemic. “I was really sure that the music world was finished and it seemed like internet aggression and, well, aggression in general was at an all-time high, so I was ready to stop playing music,” Fuson says. “It could be so easy to become jaded and pessimistic and I had to really decide what perspective I was going to take.”Rather than abandon music, Fuson and his compatriots chose to immerse themselves in their work. Fittingly, the Tarot card became the muse for Holy Wave’s sixth full-length album—Five of Cups.
Back at the beginning of their fifteen-year career, Holy Wave leaned into a tranquil realm of psychedelia, eschewing long-form jams and guitar heroics for a dreamy pop-oriented approach. As the band evolved, the early Sgt. Peppers-meets-the-Velvets sound yielded to more sophisticated melodies and tripped-out instrumentation, effectively steering their music away from sun-bleached nostalgia to a color-saturated dimension where sounds of the past, present, and future intermingled.
The childhood friends of Fuson, Joey Cook,Kyle Hager, and Julian Ruiz grew up in El Paso, where they cut their teeth in the local DIY scene. Hungry for more music and broader perspectives, the members made frequent road trips across the Southwest to catch touring bands who opted to skip West Texas markets. That wanderlust eventually prompted their relocation to Austin, but it also permeated in their adventurous songwriting and love for touring. No small surprise then that these aural explorers felt that a whole way of life was taken from them with the onset of the pandemic. But on Five of Cups, it sounds as if the physical limitations of quarantine life prompted Holy Wave to wander even deeper into new sonic territories.
Five of Cups opens with the title track, establishing the album’s auditory and thematic modus operandi from the get-go. Holy Wave’s lysergic textural palette is immediately apparent in the song’s woozy synth lead and anti-gravity guitar jangle, but the atypical chord progressions and vocal melody steers the music away from anodyne escapism into a pensive grappling between self-determination and defeatism. Holy Wave continue to ride the wistful and phantasmic train on “Bog Song,” where the members vacillate between swells of austere minor chords and layered electric orchestration. From there, the previously released digital single “Chaparral” plays with the band’s own sense of nostalgia, weaving references of their El Paso past into a tapestry of transcendental triumph.
Like so much classic album-oriented rock music, the real magic begins to unfold in the latter half of Five of Cups. On “The Darkest Timeline,” Holy Wave recruits their friends Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto Gonzalez from the Baja California, Mexico psych duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete to add additional ethereal layers to their intoxicating after-midnight grooves. “Nothing in the Dark” functions on a similar principle, using a steady propulsive drum pattern as the bedrock to tape-warbled synths, arpeggiated guitar chords, jet streams of fuzz, and serene vocals. Five of Cups’ ruminations on combating defeat and disappointment are directly confronted on album closer “Happier.” Once again straddling the melodic line between melancholy and breezy sophistication, Holy Wave examines the synthetic construct of happiness in our modern age and how so often the attainment of comfort lacks any true sense of joy. Yet this isn’t some nihilistic dirge. Rather, it translates as a buoyant reminder that the bandwidth of human experience inherently requires peaks and valleys, and that euphoria is often found in the search outside of the familiar.
As with the Tarot card from which it got its name, Five of Cups is an acknowledgement of hardship and a reminder to embrace the joys available to us. And like early ‘70s Pink Floyd, Holy Wave have figured out how to conjure a sense of profound exhilaration out of pathos, filtering dark elements through a lens and bending them into a kaleidoscope of light.
Suicide Squeeze is proud to present Holy Wave’s Five of Cups on CD/LP/DSP on August 4, 2023.
Live Dates Aug 8 – Andy’s – Denton, TX Aug 9 – Opolis – Norman, OK Aug 11 – Back Alley Ballyhoo – Indianapolis, IN Aug 12 – JJs Bohemia – Chattanooga, TN Aug 13 – Upstairs at Avondale – Birmingham, AL Aug 15 – Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL Aug 16 – Continental Club – Houston, TX Aug 17 – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX
Today, Austin, Texas band Holy Wave announce their new album Five Of Cups, out August 4, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records. In addition to the announcement, listen to the psych-tinged single “Happier,” premiering on FLOOD Magazine, and features vocals from Mexico-City songwriter and instrumentalist Estrella del Sol, of the band Mint Field. The track sounds like it was unearthed from a time capsule buried on a commune in 1970s California. It’s accompanied by an appropriately dark, trippy video directed by Arturo Baston that only heightens the acid-washed listening experience. The band have also announced a string of August US tour dates.
On the track, Fuson offers:“We had been working on this song on and off again for a while and it all kind of came together right before we started recording this album. The song is loosely a song to Kurt Vonnegut, and a song taking some of his ideas and quotes and exploring them a little further. Mainly just a song about happiness today and maybe where it was during his time. While recording this song we knew that we wanted something unique for the outro, but we didn’t really know what it was that we were looking for, so we sent the song to Estrella and basically asked her to do whatever she thought was right and she completely exceeded our vision. It really took the song to a whole new level, some place we have never been before.”
In Tarot readings, the Five of Cups card signifies loss and grief. Depicting a cloaked figure with a bowed head looming over three spilled chalices while ignoring two remaining vessels, the Five of Cups is generally interpreted as representing a forlorn dwelling on the past and an inability to appreciate the positive things in the present. It was this card that struck a chord with vocalist/guitarist Ryan Fuson, member of the Austin TX subversive subterranean pop outfit Holy Wave, during a Tarot reading at the height of the pandemic. “I was really sure that the music world was finished and it seemed like internet aggression and, well, aggression in general was at an all-time high, so I was ready to stop playing music,” Fuson says. “It could be so easy to become jaded and pessimistic and I had to really decide what perspective I was going to take.”Rather than abandon music, Fuson and his compatriots chose to immerse themselves in their work. Fittingly, the Tarot card became the muse for Holy Wave’s sixth full-length album—Five of Cups.
Back at the beginning of their fifteen-year career, Holy Wave leaned into a tranquil realm of psychedelia, eschewing long-form jams and guitar heroics for a dreamy pop-oriented approach. As the band evolved, the early Sgt. Peppers-meets-the-Velvets sound yielded to more sophisticated melodies and tripped-out instrumentation, effectively steering their music away from sun-bleached nostalgia to a color-saturated dimension where sounds of the past, present, and future intermingled.
The childhood friends of Fuson, Joey Cook,Kyle Hager, and Julian Ruiz grew up in El Paso, where they cut their teeth in the local DIY scene. Hungry for more music and broader perspectives, the members made frequent road trips across the Southwest to catch touring bands who opted to skip West Texas markets. That wanderlust eventually prompted their relocation to Austin, but it also permeated in their adventurous songwriting and love for touring. No small surprise then that these aural explorers felt that a whole way of life was taken from them with the onset of the pandemic. But on Five of Cups, it sounds as if the physical limitations of quarantine life prompted Holy Wave to wander even deeper into new sonic territories.
Five of Cups opens with the title track, establishing the album’s auditory and thematic modus operandi from the get-go. Holy Wave’s lysergic textural palette is immediately apparent in the song’s woozy synth lead and anti-gravity guitar jangle, but the atypical chord progressions and vocal melody steers the music away from anodyne escapism into a pensive grappling between self-determination and defeatism. Holy Wave continue to ride the wistful and phantasmic train on “Bog Song,” where the members vacillate between swells of austere minor chords and layered electric orchestration. From there, the previously released digital single “Chaparral” plays with the band’s own sense of nostalgia, weaving references of their El Paso past into a tapestry of transcendental triumph.
Like so much classic album-oriented rock music, the real magic begins to unfold in the latter half of Five of Cups. On “The Darkest Timeline,” Holy Wave recruits their friends Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto Gonzalez from the Baja California, Mexico psych duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete to add additional ethereal layers to their intoxicating after-midnight grooves. “Nothing in the Dark” functions on a similar principle, using a steady propulsive drum pattern as the bedrock to tape-warbled synths, arpeggiated guitar chords, jet streams of fuzz, and serene vocals. Five of Cups’ ruminations on combating defeat and disappointment are directly confronted on album closer “Happier.” Once again straddling the melodic line between melancholy and breezy sophistication, Holy Wave examines the synthetic construct of happiness in our modern age and how so often the attainment of comfort lacks any true sense of joy. Yet this isn’t some nihilistic dirge. Rather, it translates as a buoyant reminder that the bandwidth of human experience inherently requires peaks and valleys, and that euphoria is often found in the search outside of the familiar.
As with the Tarot card from which it got its name, Five of Cups is an acknowledgement of hardship and a reminder to embrace the joys available to us. And like early ‘70s Pink Floyd, Holy Wave have figured out how to conjure a sense of profound exhilaration out of pathos, filtering dark elements through a lens and bending them into a kaleidoscope of light.
Suicide Squeeze is proud to present Holy Wave’s Five of Cups on CD/LP/DSP on August 4, 2023.
We’re into the top 20 albums of 2020 (out of the nearly 80 new albums I reviewed last year). Who made the cut? Read on…
#20: Matt Karmil – STS371
This EDM record is full of throbbing bass, oil slick beats, and ambient / psychedelic synths. It works its way under your skin and moves your bones.
#19: Ultraflex – Visions of Ultraflex
Cover that looks like a 1980s New Age CD? Check. Synthwave keyboards that could fit right into a sci-fi film? Check. Sexy Replicant vocals? Check. Visions of Ultraflexmanages to be both a neat synthwave album and one of the best make-out records of 2020 at the same time.
#18: Oh Sees – Metamorphosed
This album is “only” five tracks in length, and the first three are under two minutes each. The other two, however, make up for the rest of the album’s time length of over forty minutes. It’s a mix of punk rockers and prog-psych-krautrock jams that shows how deftly Oh Sees can move back and forth between styles.
#17: HolyWave – Interloper
Holy Wave came back with a fine addition to their catalogue. Interloperblends psychedelia with some shoegaze and surf elements and is full of songs about not fitting in or being comfortable anywhere. That alone could sum up 2020.
#16: Oh Sees – Live at Big Sur
Yes, two Oh Sees albums in this list. Live at Big Surwas their second live-streamed show of 2020. They played at the Henry Miller Library and dove deep into their back catalogue to play stuff they hadn’t played live in years. The encore was a barrage of covers, many of them Black Flag tunes.
We’re over halfway through the list! Come back tomorrow for more!
Austin dream-psych rockers Holy Wave‘s new album, Interloper, is a great blend of surf drones, shoegaze touches, and mind-trip riffs. The weird album cover art sums up the sound of the album fairly well – abstract to a degree, expanding and shrinking at the same time, and full of riddles.
Opening with a song called “Schmetterling” (German for “Butterfly”) is a good choice for the record, as the song spreads its silky wings and flutters out of your speakers with a happy, warm, Zen groove (“The sound of destruction sounds just like creation.”). “R&B” sings R&B lyrics (“I knew I wanted to be with you when you kissed me, and now these lips are just for you. I only have eyes for you.”) over psychedelic guitar chords and synthwave keyboards.
The Beatles-influenced title track is an ode (or possibly a lament) to the different worlds of touring the world and hanging out at home. The prominent synth work on it is quite good. “Maybe Then I Can Cry” is great psychedelia and a song about lost loves and holding onto memories. “Escapism” has the band hushing us as the psychedelic butterfly wings warm in the Texas sun and then take flight across an herb garden in some lovely hippie woman’s backyard.
However, on the next track they declare “I’m Not Living in the Past Anymore.” It’s a hot synth-rock track and a highlight of the record with the band pleading for us (and themselves) to stay in the present and embrace all there is, was, and will be. “No Love” is a dreamy track, not unlike a Slowdivetune (who are known influences on the band) with its vocals and instruments sounding like that butterfly now gliding along a lazy river that flows near a club playing a mix of acid jazz and psych-rock.
The title of “Hell Bastards” sounds like it’s going to be the theme song to an obscure European WWII movie from the 1960’s, but it’s actually a cool krautrock song. The beats of “Buddhist Pete” (the longest track on the record) get into your shoulders and make you move. The closing track, “Redhead,” drifts into your ears, settles in your brain, and stays there like a butterfly perched on your arm.
An interloper is someone who becomes involved in a place or situation where they’re not wanted or don’t belong. It’s easy to feel like that, especially in 2020, and even in a “normal” year if you’re in a touring band. Holy Wave probably felt like interlopers scores of times while touring, and Interloper is a great narrative of them being out of place at home and abroad.
