San Diego’s First Wave Hello has called it quits before even getting a chance to speak. The band announced they were taking a “break” to focus on side-projects after four years of extensive touring and recording. The band calls it quits shortly after releasing what is now their final record “God Bless, Devil You” earlier this year.
When Ken Andrews (Failure, On, Year of Rabbit) played the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia a year and a half ago, I was introduced and captivated by the solid performance of openers First Wave Hello. The band remained on stage as the backing band for Andrews and played songs from his new release, as well as former bands. Andrews mixed their full length and was impressed enough to bring them out with him on tour. The upstairs venue at World Cafe Live fits about 150 people and left me feeling lucky to watch such an intimate show from both bands.
Armed with numerous catchy tracks in my head, I did a google search the following day for FWH to find out where I could find their records (after an intial search on Demonoid, of course). Surprisingly, all I found was their MySpace page and a basic website, which listed the band as unsigned. I couldn’t believe a band of this caliber was still without a label. I searched Amazon and still could not find any releases. I was, however, able to find its 2006 full release “The Lord & It’s Penguin.” This record was a sonic boom to my ears and took me on a 54-plus-minute space trip though their experimental space-pop sound. Stand out tracks Suitable, Healthy Amount of Self-Loathing and Lay Down create a bullet of sound that penetrates the ears with melodic keyboards under heavy guitars and tight instrumental arrangements. The record made every iPod playlist of mine for the next six months and flew up my Last.fm charts.
After announcing what would be their last EP, they toured again in last fall with Andrews. Again, they played the World Cafe Live but were downstairs. This part of the venue is larger than the upstairs and features a strange dinner table seating arrangement. They posted a new track Two Propellers from their upcoming EP on MySpace, and I was stoked to see them perform new songs. Front man Jacob Turnbloom returned with a slightly different lineup and perhaps this was a sign of things to come. They played a tight set and left me excited to hear the finished EP. That same excitement was equaled by disappointment to hear that FWH had taken an indefinite hiatus earlier this year, and the ominous “2004-2008 RIP” headline message on MySpace cements the speculation that their run is over. Jacob has a MySpace site for his new project called “Jacob and The Forces” with a headline announcing that an LP will be released in the Fall. First Wave Hello leaves us with two solid EPs and a brilliant full-length to remember them by. One can only hope that, perhaps, they will wave again someday.
