Jackson Phillips, aka Day Wave, has been the subject of great deal of buzz from various indie rock bloggers. Within the last handful of months, Phillips, formerly trained as a jazz percussionist, recorded a solid EP by himself basically in his bedroom (which released in July), put together a touring band, and hit the road. Due to the tremendous amount of aforementioned buzz Day Wave has received among Brooklyn indie/alt rock circles, the band induced a rather raucous, sold out crowd for its early set on Wednesday evening at one of my all-time favorite music venues in New York, the immortal Mercury Lounge.
Day Wave’s EP released last month (entitled Headcase) is a solid initial effort for the project and evokes a cheery California surfer vibe wrapped around some straight up demoralizing lyrics (just refer to “Nothing at All” and the catchy Sirius XMU single “Drag” to inject a big fat shot of gloominess to your life).
To capitalize on all of the energy emanating from a sold out crowd in a small venue, Phillips and his band started Day Wave’s New York premier shrewdly playing the first two, rather high-tempo and poppy tracks from the EP (“Nothing at All” and “Total Zombie”). The band that Phillips has assembled around his bedroom tunes was impressive and tight (and ultimately inspired me to write this review). The touring version of Day Wave is made up of some young, excellent musicians (bass, lead and rhythm guitar, keys, and drums) who masterly elevated the energy and feel of the EP’s five songs. The most notable change from the record tracks to their live interpretations was the vocal chorus that the bassist, lead guitarist, and keyboardist added to the mix pumping a little juice into the sometimes subdued vibes of the songs’ recorded versions.
Given that Day Wave has only five recorded songs to date, I was curious to see how Phillips planned to fill out an entire headlining set. Alas, it was evident when the band reverted to its B and C lists as not quite fully-formed songs with some rather repetitive choruses reared their heads in the middle of the set. Yet the band was so tight with its live execution (kudos go out to the rhythm section – but everyone was excellent) that I hardly minded, especially when the tunes transcended into DIIV-esque jams.
After experiencing Day Wave live, I’m happy to confirm that the project is definitely worthy of all the indie-buzz it has attracted and look forward to a full-length recording, hopefully coming sooner than later.