With so many shifts in the music industry, rock n’ roll has found itself in a strange place. It seems like every band is in some sort of identity crisis. If it’s on the heavy side, it falls into the metal category, if hook-driven it’s power-pop. If sloppy, it’s punk. With so much emphasis on labeling a genre, it’s hard to get a good read on what a band is all about. Whatever happened to good old fashioned rock n’ roll? This is something The By Gods are correcting with their new single “Wait Up”.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for The By Gods to decide on which track from their album Move On, to shoot a video for.
Every song from the album has potential to be a radio single and each one representing a different side of the band. This is a problem not too many bands have these days. Generally, bands pick the most contemporary cover-all and hope it pushes the album. In the case of The By Gods, “Wait Up” is just another layer to an album stacked with would-be hits. In a perfect world, “Wait Up” would be in heavy rotation on every rock station across the US and probably the world.
What makes “Wait Up” so interesting is how catchy it is. The By Gods aren’t exactly a hard rock band but most of their songs have an aggressive edge, utilizing angst and slightly darker imagery to propel their core sound. “Wait Up” features a power-pop exoskeleton complete with female ‘uh-oooh’ hooks, and takes nearly 2 minutes before raging distortion kicks in.
If most alternative rock bands wanted to be Nirvana, The By Gods are The Pixies.
Keeping up with the feel-good theme of the track, the music video for “Wait Up” features the band doing one of the most chill photoshoots, all with blanket props, wine, and of course dogs! This video shows that beneath the distortion and beats, The By Gods are a group of people who would be a blast to hang around. I hope to do just that when they hit up Chicago for a show with Pat Chow (who also did a split with The By Gods found here )
All in all, “Wait Up” is just might be the perfect rock song of 2018 and it’s the perfect reason to check out their album Move On. Check out the video for “Wait Up” then go buy the album, I promise it will be your new favorite.
Move On is available now at bandcamp
