Life Of The Party:Longwave

Title: Life of the Party

Label: RCA

Genre: post-punk pop

Rating: 5.75 of 7

Formed in 1999 in New York riding on the retro-rock wave headed by the Strokes and the White Stripes, Longwave jumped on the scene virtually out of nowhere. They caught their big break by securing the opening spot in a large-scale U.S. tour with whom else but the Strokes. While this was huge for the bands success, it also labeled them as the Strokes Jr. since they sounded so similar. Now there are definite similarities, but Longwave does posses certain qualities to keep distinguished from the garage rock revival. First of all, there is a strong space-rock influence that is seen heavy on #1. Secondly, Longwave seems to vary its sound a bit more than most bands in the genre. They have the ability to up the tempo and rock out (#2), or take a step back, not only in tempo but production quality to actually sound like it was made 30 years ago, and spit out the amazing “There’s a Fire” (#4). They can even rock out an impressive and innovative instrumental (#5). Overall, I am always impressed with Longwave, even if they are not quite the pioneers that their influences are.

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