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Review Summary: Comedic character contemplating. If you have ever been to an amateur poetry night, you have probably encountered a plethora of holier-than-thou, unskilled and aimless, pastiche artists with very little sense of self-reflection or humour about their oeuvre. If you have been to a large amount, then you may have also accidentally met a Wesley Gonzalez type: humble, skilled and talented, wholly original artist with good wits and humour about themselves. And about others. A Wesley Gonzalez type is a wordy funnyman with knack at the ‘real’, treating the uncompetitive stage like he is the loser by nobody’s consensus, hellbent on exacting humorous revenge on the silly folk taking themselves too literally and their art too seriously, while saying very little. Such is a Wesley Gonzalez type, knocking simplicity for jokes that have an appeal, and often punch away, instead of up or down.
But a Wesley Gonzalez type is also a wordy musical solipsist, selfishly keeping so much talent hidden away from the general public. How dare you share an album once in so long, sir. Where art thou mannersththth? His days with the indie sillies Let’s Wrestle have long passed and now he on occasion battles with terminal wittiness on solo projects tackling disparate topics of varying levels of actual fun and funniness. The pathological need to be a little aloof in words has often unfortunately translated onto music as well. As a result, his full length albums often suffered from the exact opposite of what ails the amateur poet: lack of self-seriousness and a self-awareness that beats any cry for help with a baton. Now he has minimised his ambition for runtime and resigned to simply sticking to the actual proper hits. He has called off the dogs of his self-deprecation (take a shot for any self- prefix appearance) to no longer bother the creative input and sharpen their fangs for the lyrics.
Four songs is enough to say all one needs sometimes. “The wife just went pescatarian, so at home I am living off chewing gum.” Done. Great job. The opener “When I Rot” is about as apt a summary of a working-to-middle class everyman’s consumption world-induced anxiety and confusion. Things are happening rapidly, changing in an unrecognisable way, leaving him behind. It is scary stuff that will happen to most, yet Wesley cannot help but approach the subject with wry one-liners like a stand-up comedian who starts doing more shows instead of reaching out to a therapist. All we love and know passes, whether material or proverbial. You like Michael Jackson? Great songs, shame about all those kids, though. How is one supposed to relax, when even the act alone is a cause of mental rot.
On a polarly opposite side of the spectrum, “II Proud II Beg” and “Dress Rehearsal” align more with the promotional claims of “writing purely for fun”. The songs are a fun fun fun unɟ unɟ unɟ bunch of anecdotal tales of love mocked and unrequited, and the latter – unconnected to Leonard Cohen’s magnum depressopus “Dress Rehearsal Rag” – a tune of ‘get paid get laid’ proportions but switch the ‘laid’ for the ‘stoned’. But even at that the song manages to move to some marginally dark places, narrating a disillusioned directionlessness of any unremarkable git living in *gesturing broadly*. And all that is neatly wrapped by the closest a Wesley Gonzalez song has ever come to an anthem, “Old Town”. In it a youthful romance is all the comedy. The central tenet of a good chunk of Wesley’s songs is that he is a comedic character that you laugh at out of pity. But it is in the comedy he has written and narrated himself, taken by its manes, let to gallop over all them hunting hounds.
The dogs have been called off, I can bite myself, thank you very much.
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Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
a bit rushed, but here's hoping we'll get a third woof on the front page
checkity check, the chinese checking: https://wesleygonzalez.bandcamp.com/album/wild-garlic-ep
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HI!! You asked for feedback on the staff feedback list. I am kind of doing that, but have suggested someone else do a deeper dive if that's what you're looking for...
In terms of compare/contrast: your Oxbow piece is obviously better and I think you know that BUT the take away point should be that (a) this is very good still (b) writing long in depth love pieces that do that challenging intersection between deep personal feelings + band retrospective without turning into violent, boring gushing is exhausting and hard and (for me) a kind of once or twice a year ///thing/// in that I simply don't have the time or willpower to do it regularly (some do e.g. jonathan). They're super super site enriching pieces (i genuinely adore your Oxbow piece it helped me understand the band) BUT i think most writers bread and butter should be shorter, quicker, more visceral free thought pieces like this. It helps ensure you can write more revs, which in turns allows you to cover more stuff, promote more art, experiment in more styles of writing, round yourself out as a writer more easily, get to know your own voice quicker, AND not burn out by demanding perfection with every piece.
Also this is my comment 8888 pog
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BUT THAT BEING SAID - this needed a proof i think which hopefully another staffer/contrib will shortly hop in and provide. This is gloriously messy and cute and characterful but also i feel like your core thesis gets a little lost along the way and i struggle to follow / readily grasp the THING you want me to take away from this. I think all the core content is here, it just needs refining a little, which a third party proof is usually the quickest and easiest route to achieving - we're terrible at checking our own worst impulses, I KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE IN MYSELF (i tend to write a bunch of silly jokey asides and weird /p/u/n/c/t/u/a/t/i/o/n gimmics etc in my revs because it comes easier than actually applying brain, and i enjoy the positive levity i think it lends the pieces, BUT there's a point where those sorts of things can FUCK readability and kneecap your core argument and audience retention, which is why i use Johnny/Milo/Kompys/Mars etc etc etc to make me stop being stupid). Also there are a handful of grammar/syntax gremlins that if fixed would ease readability.
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HOWEVER, i think you have already found a very most excellent voice and your core impulses are good ones and you should definitely think about applying for contrib once the window opens (i think early next year)
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
oh bb thanks aplenty
yeah, i tend to overlook grammar and syntax and somesuch ugliness (which is pretty bad for an english major oops). i have a problem with being overly eager to publish once i am sure the core text is finished, cannot wait for proofreaders to work their magic. similarly, i have a problem with revision. a concept once grabbed is not a concept workshopped, stupidly enough. so in this review, it kinda goes all over the place, cause i just wanted to mess around with the conscience stream approach
i might apply for contrib, but i like the freedom to not have to write when i don't feel like it. does contrib have some quotas?
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All good points for sure, I prefer the unedited freeflowing chaos approach too, and get the eagerness - sometimes, if you don’t wanna do the full PROOF approach, simply putting the review down, doing the sleep, and rereading with fresh eyes is all it needs to remove the worst gremlins. Provided you’re happy with what you’ve written and it achieves the goals you had for it, then all is Gucci.
Contrib is low stress - the idea is that it’s a badge of recognition that you do the good words (giving you some dibs-ing power and feature preference) and that you may one day want to become staff, where the quota hitting is more important. 12 reviews a year on modern releases is the contrib/staff goal, but not proactively enforced - it’s a self motivation kinda thing, no one is breathing down your neck to fulfil it, and the only consequence of not doing so at contrib level is just a potential de-bump at the next promotion cycle. The ONLY mildly stressful moment is the requirement to contribute to the end of year list feature, which can be time sensitive, but is good fun nonetheless.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
honestly, the year-ends always seemed like they must be the most fun to partake
while you're here, check the EP, it's good fun
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/17f7Qy5mna2HY80odVmPLsfCEgz0XYsHjIs37DMfM5Wc/edit?usp=sharing
in case helpful
i will listen i promise
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Cheers, thx a bunch.
No worries, I will be spamming this as a rec wherever I can find.
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