.....2002 Press Continued>>>

Wowed by Flutter by Andy Smetanka Wow and Flutter play at Jay's this Tuesday, November 12 at 10 PM. Cover TBA. The sound of bad tape decks gone good, the Portland band called Wow and Flutter is something you do want in your tape deck, unless you've already got the bad kind (digital recordings do not generally contain measurable levels). You want Wow and Flutter in there for weathery days when you don't feel like going anywhere, and in your car stereo when you're planning a drive on a lonely highway where you won't pass another car for miles. Or on your personal disc player if you're going to be out walking around, remembering old lovers and staring up at snow falling in soft pyramids around streetlights. Their fifth full-length album, Names, just released on the (also) Portland-based Jealous Butcher label, is the sound of either forgetting or blowing off everything you were planning to do with an early start on a Saturday and sitting around drinking tea instead. Macramé. Cross-stitch. Reorganizing photos and putting them into albums. Anything cross-legged on a clean carpet. You know the sound? Chiming clean, laconic tempos, pleasantly downbeat minor-key songs and smooth vocals. There's cello. You know how it is with a band that has a cello. It makes you think of bath beads, not beer. What are they doing playing at Jay's? Not struggling to be heard above the ambient din, hopefully. Give them a break. Bouncers, please charge a $5 quietness deposit for anyone who looks like they're there for a rock show. -Andy Smetanka, Missoula Independent (Missoula, MT), November 2002.