Wolf-Face – Still A Son of a Bitch

There’s a lot of bands out there biding for your attention; especially now with the advent of Garage Band and Bandcamp, it seems that everyone is recording and self releasing material. With so much noise, it’s hard to stand out in the sea of bands. I don’t know what it was that made me check out Wolf-Face, but I’m sure glad I did. Because before I knew that they always dressed up as basketball playing wolves, before I knew that every song was about the trials and tribulations of being a werewolf, before I knew anything at all about the band, I heard the opening verse to Love Me, Rub Me, Fuck Me Werewolf and I immediately messaged my friends: we’re seeing this band at The Fest.

While I never did see them at The Fest (which was a shame, because I would’ve loved to see their werewolf costumes), I still haven’t stopped listening to Still A Son Of A Bitch. There’s something undeniably alluring about Wolf-Face – it’s partly the gimmick and partly the sheer awesomeness of the music.

We’ll talk gimmick first and get that out of the way. Wolf-Face are werewolves, or so they claim. They go by names like Michael J. Wolf and Wolf Fart. They play countless clips from the 1985 cult classic Teen Wolf throughout the album and all the songs are, in one way or another, about turning into a wolf. It could get tiring but as far as concept albums go, this isn’t so bad. After all, it’s clear that they’re not taking themselves too seriously. They’re having fun, fucking around and so when they reference Little Red Riding Hood or the Three Little Pigs, its smile worthy and not cringe worthy.

But more than the gimmick, the music is truly what pushes Still A Son of a Bitch forward. High-quality punk rock, Wolf-Face are the perfect small-stage Fest band. They channel Screeching Weasel in I Wanna Be A Homo(Sapian). It’s Elway if they were punkier, Nothington is they were poppier with a distinctive set of vocals that are both fresh and familiar, raw but with a pop-punk edge. Like a faster paced Red City Radio, or Off With Their Heads if they weren’t so depressed and from Florida instead of Minneapolis.

Hell, they even do a wicked cover of NoBunny‘s I Am A Girlfriend, giving it a fuller, punkier sound while keeping the creepy-factor. The Silence Of The Lamb pre-bridge sing along is just perfect; and, in fact, the cover becomes one of the album highlights).

Merge all this with fantastic call and response segments (Put Me In Coach, On Second Thought, Go Fuck Yourself), anticipation building introductions (She Swallows), some varied tempos (She’s In Heat But She Won’t Mate With Me and Tonight, Tonight) and some top-notch production quality, Wolf-Face stands above the sea of bands out there – and not just because they wear wolf costumes.