Juan Wauters - N.A.P. North American Poetry

N.A.P. North American Poetry, Juan Wauters
Captured Tracks, USA
Rating: 82
by Souad Martin-Saoudi 

While N.A.P. North American Poetry was released last February, I must admit I needed some time to absorb all of the earnestness emanating from this epigrammatic record. So I listened and re-listened to Juan Wauters' first solo LP. When it comes to achieving true simplicity -one that can only be attained by gathering, digesting and unifying the infinite complexities of human reasoning, the Jackson Heights-based fellow with the nasal vocals and minimalist guitar arrangements has become an expert. After several listens, his "collection of 12 songs about the coldness of winter and the warmth of a scratch-off nickel," which were all recorded at Gary Olson's Marlborough Farms studio between 2010 and 2012, uncovers the songwriter’s proficiency to understand and expose complex situations with an idiosyncratic lyricism that remains engaging.

"I don’t like you, you’re a fool" shouts Wauters on album opener "Let Me Hip You To Something," after a discrete soaring guitar takeoff. The chuckle-inducing statement can offend upon first hearing, but in a way it calls into question whether he sings it in order to keep us, as a society, on our toes, aware, and truly present. Beneath his offhand irony, The Beets frontman bares a purity of conception that either excites or puts off. And so Wauters makes his way through and underneath the layers of our conscious minds, one moment with the genuine urgency of "Sanity or Not" and a moment later with the soothing bongo beat of the jaunty and Rollingstonesque "Lost in Soup." JW’s three-chord art punk provides a solid vessel for his thoughts on overconformity and the alienation of modern humanity. "Escucho Mucho" builds in a dreamy-jangly rhythm guitar to lines like "Soy un soldado, no estoy domado, a otro soldado quiero matar, pero no puedo, no tengo dedo apretar gatillo y matar." The hazy and drifting "Woke Up Feeling Like Sleeping," with its quieter strumming guitar, maracas and voiceover embodies Wauters’ aesthetic, one that’s weirdly attractive.

His art excels with the contemplative "Water," whose words ("Do I belong, who is it that I am, what is it that I'm for") and music video (shot in Montevideo by longtime collaborator Matthew Voltz) create a sense that we have dropped in on a moment that has not stopped to exist because of our incursion. We can even catch a sight of two of Wauters musical idols Chicos Eléctricos’ Nico Barcia and singer songwriter Ruben Rada. Amanda Rodi’s flute on “Goo” and Carmelle Safdie’s (Beachniks) vocals on "Breathing" and "How Do They All Do?" envelop the confessional lyrics and JW’s slacker drawl with a fuller sensorial experience. Like a playful and spirited choir, the duet formed by Wauters and Safdie (a more fun and spirited version of Reed/Nico tandem), proves to be curiously effective as the vocal alternation channels Wauters’ vulnerability without becoming mawkish. "Continue To Be You" offers a different kind of thrill as lines from the opening track: “Get a headache yeah, take medicine yeah, get better yeah, to another headache, oh yeah” are repeated as a mantra to bring us to full realization.

N.A.P. North American Poetry (out via Captured Tracks) closes with a rough but spirited cover of Los Piojos "Ay Ay Ay". The pressing guitar arrangements on this song are about someone who strives to survive outside of an alienating society, but inevitably comes back to it -giving it greater depth. Patti Smith in Just Kids explained that “to be an artist was to see what others could not.” Juan Wauters does precisely that: managing to hold the listener spellbound with few chords and a feeling. The candor and artisanal approach of his collection of thoughts permeates the ordinary to better transcend it.

Juan Wauters – “Escucho Mucho”

Within the first few seconds of "Escucho Mucho," Uruguayan-born, Jackson Heights-based Juan Wauters' shambling rhythm guitar brings us back to the naive candor of childhood, that very candor that made his band, The Beets, so intriguing. With a unique awareness and a fair dose of self-irony Wauters shares his take on confusion, alienation and isolation. As the track progresses, a psychedelic flight on an electric guitar is layered over the jaunty melody, bringing Wauters’ existentialist-folk to a cosmic level. His true melodic sensitivity and irresistible charm will have you humming under your breath without realizing it. "Escucho Mucho" is the second single off of his debut solo album N.A.P. North American Poetry, out February 4th through Captured Tracks.

The Beets - Let The Poison Out

Let The Poison Out, The Beets
Hardly Art, USA
Rating: 79
by Souad-Martin Saoudi

The Beets could easily be described as just another innocent lo-fi act from New York, but this Jackson Heights band of outsiders manages to compose atypical tunes that create an inimitable and infectious slacker rock garage sound and a delirious washed out image. Their loose, laid-back approach has influences as broad as The Ramones (their self-proclaimed idols), The Beach Boys, Queen, Uruguayan cult band Chicos Electricos, and singer songwriter Eduardo Mateo. The band was formed in 2008 but the journey started when Juan Wauters, who emigrated from Uruguay, met José Garcia, who shares both Bolivian and Colombian origins, in art class at LaGuardia Community College. Since then, they have been making reverb and distortion drenched garage pop. Unfortunately, since their first show in May of 2008, The Beets have gone through at least ten different drummers. The release of their third LP demonstrates the band’s incremental improvements and also suggests they have found in Chie Mori the perfect percussive match. The band can also count on the Matthew Volz’s collaboration, who creates all of the cover art and plays the recorder from time to time.

Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool, their first LP, has baffled more than one listener. Through Wauters' rare nasal melodies, almost screamed gang vocals, and mid-tempo percussions, The Beets have shown how far a lo-fidelity, effortless production can be taken. And as much as it annoyed me not to understand exactly what they were doing, I found myself having the urge to listen to this 30-minute album about "being cool” over and over again; I wanted to feel like I was finally a part of this crazy bunch that stands up in the face of adversity and gives the finger to all the posers and lame fools out there trying so hard to be relevant. Their second album, Stay Home, whose title is an allusion to the Ramones' Leave Home, which had comparably messy psychedelic melodies. Though the sloppy chords and muted vocals felt familiar, songs such as “Watching TV" and "Pops N Me" wisely advise us that it’s sometimes better just to stay home and hang out with the ones we love.

While maintaining the inclination for short and playful songs loaded with heartwarming lyrics, Let the Poison Out, with its occasional overdubbing, has a much clearer, cleaner sound. The title references an illustrious radio moment on Howard Stern’s show. The phrase was uttered by Dave Lampert, dance instructor and creator of the Sybian saddle (an imposing masturbation device) during a demonstration by a famous porn star. Recorded in two days at Marlborough Farms by Gary Olsen of Ladybug Transistor, Let the Poison Out still has a shambolic DIY vibe, yet the indolent chanted lyrics have gained a decipherable quality. Chie Mori's sweet vocals also give the band a new edge. While the not so buoyant opener “You Don’t Want Kids To Be Dead” plays with our conscience and alludes to Sid Vicious and Frankenstein, “Now I live” gives us a much better feeling with its higher tempo. Words like “I’m cloudy, but inside I’m only sun” make the tambourine-inflected “Let Clock Work” an instant sing-along. Wauters’s ability to sincerely depict the ordinary is asserted in “Doing As I Do,” their first single. Kicking off with “don’t be afraid you will not die, and if you die, whatever,” Wauters expresses, with a rather existentialist viewpoint, his thoughts on the meaning of life. The song asserts that in order to survive in this absurd world one must do what one wants and be free because Jesus, God, and Satan don’t really care. The lovesick, metaphorical “I Don’t Know” and accelerated “Friends of Friends,” with their solid chord changes are definite standouts. True to their habits, The Beets' newest LP contains a song in Spanish about being drunk and killing your neighbor entitled "Preso Voy" and the experimental interlude “Eat No Dick 3.” This kind of quartet with lots of attitude reiterate with this third LP their great dedication to making art together.

Some may unwisely peg them as always sounding the same, however, the band’s charm lies precisely in their capacity to draw listeners into their surreal and absurd world. There is a disconcerting authenticity and simplicity about them that perhaps only their live shows can reveal. With a kitschy Native American doll decorating the stage and Volz’s banners proclaiming auto-derisive slogans like “I’d rather watch paint dry,” Wauters, Garcia, and Mori’s evident chemistry and stage presence make these spontaneous performances seem like big dislocated parties where you feel happy you got invited. The whimsical, folksy experiment of Wauters once again captures the feeling of a chemically altered campfire sing-along session on Let the Poison Out, an album “about getting everything out of your system,” being yourself, and being free, which is arguably the best “collection of songs” the Beets have produced yet.