Reviewed by Mondo Castro
Longwave/The Strangest Things
I always believed that Toad the Wet Sprocket had strong New Wave roots. You can hear it in their songs especially on the album Fear that housed that massive hit “All I Want”. Now, that conviction is bizarrely “justified” in New York band Longwave. This four-piece is made from the same cloth as Toad The Wet Sprocket enhanced and polished with the Railway Children and the Ocean Blue’s shimmering guitars. Front man Steve Schiltz, who played on Theo Eastwind’s brilliant One album, even sings like Toad singer Glen Phillips. I’ll jump from a ten-storey building if Longwave didn’t pattern their music after Toad. I’ll slit my throat and eat ten miles of shit if I’m proven wrong. But, hey, like I always say—it’s not a bad thing to ‘borrow’ from somebody else just as long as you make it better than it was when you stumbled upon it. And ‘made it better’ Longwave did. I’ve fallen in love with “Everywhere You Turn,” “I Know It’s Coming Someday,” and “Tidal Wave” — classics all. Gorgeous works of art— makes me want to maim these boys. Longwave have finally taken Toad out of the New Wave closet and added a little more glitter, a bit more sheen — vastly improving on the archetype.
