2003>>>

Wow & Fluter's newest album, Names, heads toward the land of existential contemplation, where sleep, dreams and dimmed lighting lead wanderers down lonely roads. W&F's talent is that its music--almost-absent lyrics reduced to a whisper, flashes of inspired melodic experimentation, echoes of a rainy afternoon--takes listeners along, too. -Kim Colton, Willamette Week, Jan, 2003

Wow & Flutter disarms with bleakness and a happy face For a band whose musical output has consistently flirted with the bleak end of the emotional spectrum, Wow & Flutter is among the most disarmingly funny group of people you might ever meet. The Portland quartet's frious back-and-forth banter consists of a fusillade of self depreciating jabs, like a boxer more intent on toying with his opponent than putting him down. Their fifth and latest release, Names (Jealous Butcher Records), builds on the band's sound of slowly building tension and prismatically orchestrated release, radiates a quiet confidence that hasn't always been evident. The album holds together with a single downcast mood sustained over its eight tracks. This could be the record that finally garners Wow & Flutter more than just critical recognition--not that the black humorists in the group would ever agree with such an assessment, however. "That'd be the next step," Amato says, adding with a laugh, "That's been the next step since about the third album, though." "We tend not to know a lot of people, donÕt do the scene thing. We do tour, though," he adds, segueing into a lengthy riff on the band's recent sojourn across the States, and the trials and tribulations associated with getting in the tour van and sleeping on the floors of strangers' homes. "We're much more rocking live," Houston says enthusiastically, picking up the theme. "I don't think we've ever made a record that represents what we sound like live. Not to mention the frequent costume changes. The coordinated kicks, especially during the quiet parts. And the tight, tight trousers." Despite the sheer effort required to accrue any kind of recognition for its work, Wow & Flutter's members still seem surprised to find someone genuinely interested in what they do. They're just happy to pursue their music, their way. Or at least that's the impression on of them insists on giving. -Corey Dubrowa, A&E (The Oregonian), Feb, 2003

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