Rogue Wave

TheOwlMag on Rogue Wave

Artist: Rogue Wave Album: Descended like Vultures Label: Sub Pop Genre: Rock/Pop Rating: Buy it >>

With all the favorable press this band’s received in recent weeks, I can’t help but begin attempting to sniff out a conspiracy among the independent, corporate and communist media scene. I mean, chalk it up to paranoid delusion, but just last week even this reputable zine featured an interview with songwriter/leader Zach Rogue.

But not to worry, Descended like Vultures relaxes me. I am comforted by its raging licks and spasmodic bass venturings. As I sit here waiting for my Fruit Loops to saturate halfway, the album’s soft wind chimes and lilting melodies soothe me. I am reminded that good bands occupy a wider stretch of the spectrum of human emotions than some whole genres can ever accommodate.

This album exudes a magnitude of sound on a grand scale and delineates subtle detail. But Rogue Wave is no gimmicky novelty act that aims to please chamber of commerce types and gutter punk junkies alike with its diverse palette. Dig the baroque classicism of “Catform” feeding into explosive grand hoverances of electric guitars over pounding waltzes. Experience the quiet transition into the next track, “Love’s Lost Guarantee.” Drums tick and tock like a commuter’s blinking clock, enforcing time behind Evan Farrell’s resolute and unhurried bass while the persistent refrain, “Oh what you need is a guarantee,” clearly takes note of our need for some kind of guarantee. We can’t be expected to just walk right in here willynilly can we?

By the time you get through the junkyard of feedback and guttural bass riffs of the album’s choicest monster, “10:1,” there’s still five more. You’re at track 6 out of 11 and you’ve already broken even. By this point, high concentrations of novel sound ideas have entered into our ears pleasantly, and this music could indeed be its own blasted conspiracy. The last track, a mostly acoustic “Temporary,” ends on an open note exactly when you most want the darn thing to continue. So with the feeling that we, and indeed everything in the entire universe, are just as temporary as the song, we leave off hoping this band stays around awhile and makes the most of this pleasant arrangement.

- Review submitted by Dan Vermont.

TheOwlMag on Rogue Wave

Artist: Rogue Wave Album: Asleep at Heaven’s Gate Label: Brushfire Records Genre: Indie Rock, Rock/Pop Rating: Buy it >>

Rogue Wave can always be relied upon to release solid albums of gorgeous, classic-sounding pop with deliciously catchy melodies and lush vocal harmonies. It’s hard to resist the sound of Zach Rogue’s sweet, inviting tenor drifting over intricately layered guitar parts and infectious rhythms.

Opening track “Harmonium” is glorious six-and-a-half minute pop epic that could have just as easily closed the album. The single “Lake Michigan” is an intoxicating waltz complete with handclaps. “Lullaby” begins as delicate indie pop song and builds up to a wailing, cathartic guitar solo. “Christians in Black” is built upon lovely Simon and Garfunkel-style acoustic guitar playing.

The album’s best songs are stacked together at the beginning, and its second half isn’t quite as strong. However, there’s still plenty to like: the escalating finales of “Own Your Own Home” and “Ghost,” the cynical proclamations of “Fantasies” and “Phonytown,” the affecting melancholy of “Cheaper Than Therapy.” For the most part, Asleep at Heaven’s Gate lives up to the expectations created by Rogue Wave’s past releases.

- Review submitted by Kiri Oliver.

alimogator on Rogue Wave

Are they playing an unofficial show, because I don't see them on the sxsw schedule?

StylusMagazine on Rogue Wave

But if there was something that separated the Bay Area foursome from their peers, it's that they come off without a whiff of artifice, a sort of dream scenario where you can stump for your friends' band because they're actually really, really good. And besides, only imagined barriers of presumed hipness can convince you that Rogue Wave's excellent catalog would be too much to handle for people who'd otherwise be listening to Ben Harper. more at www.stylusmagazine.com

pitchfork on Rogue Wave

The first single from the new album, "10:1", confirms a sea change: Where the atmospheric debut laced cloudy melodies with quiet traces of heat lightning, "10:1" is a crashing thunderbolt. The thin, melodic contour lines that primarily structured Out of the Shadow become barely discernible underpinnings on this track, subsumed in raucously cartwheeling synths and returning producer Bill Racine's bracing guitar manipulation. The only vestige of the old Rogue Wave is Rogue's voice. more at www.pitchforkmedia.com

allmusic on Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave was formed in 2002 when Zach Rogue took off from his San Francisco home, headed for New York, and came home with nearly a full album's worth of songs recorded. Rogue then quit his post in his previous group, the Desoto Reds, and finished the album, which was released on Rogue's own Responsive label under the title of Out of the Shadow. more at www.allmusic.com