NUNOFYRBEESWAX “On Everything”
(Black Bug Records)
Talk about enthusiasm! Ridiculous band name aside, Nunofyrbeeswax are an eager couple of whippersnappers from Berlin who play “a bunch of pop songs as raw as their hearts in a minimal set up,” and boy, I’m just getting the cutesy garage feels from these two. I mean, sure, there are definite post punk undertones, but this is way more fun than huddling under that scene’s dour blanket of misery. They hew way more toward the new wave side of things, a dank combination of fifties throwback jangle and proto-indie wobble. “Pop Your Heart” even reminds me a little bit of Komeda, actually, the Swedish mod band whose “Boogie Woogie/Rock’n’Roll” appeared on a million mixtapes I made twenty years ago. And while Nunofyrbeeswax plays much more raw and unrestrained tunes, they’re still a lot tighter than maybe you’d expect them to be. Davide and Angela (and whoever else plays with them) sometimes come off as a goofier Boss Hog, especially on “Outrageous,” where the groove’ll get those hips wiggling faster than you can say “Winn Coma.” Even on the slurring indie of “Rhino” and the somehow seven minutes of “How to Handle a Non-Audience,” Nunofyrbeeswax never loses their winning charm or boundless energy. In fact, they seem to have vast reservoirs of each at their disposal. And it sure doesn’t hurt that the songs, all in English, are sung with the most adorable German accents you’re ever going to hear. In fact, it totally makes up for the band name – you can forgive the fact that the idiom’s not the most interesting or, dare I say, cool. But that’s OK, that’s part of the charm! You’ll be too busy having a blast to care anyway, what with all these great tunes. And that’s your beeswax and your beeswax alone – not anybody else’s.
Nunofyrbeeswax
Black Bug Records
--Ryan Masteller