Garage rockers the Willowz hail from Disneyland's Anaheim, California, home, so it's maybe not surprising that they got a fairy tale-style break from the movies: Early last year, when founders Richie James Follin and Jessica Reynoza were still in their teens, French auteur Michel Gondry put their raucous, White Stripes-ish rock on the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack. For the band's sprawling, ambitious second studio album, Talk in Circles, the SoCal rockers (now a foursome) look about thirty miles west for inspiration -- to Hawthorne, hometown of the Beach Boys and birthplace of Brian Wilson's kitchen-sink pop experimentalism. From the fuzzed-out bubblegum duet "Making Certain" to the blistering rush of "Cons and Tricks," the Willowz are the only thing in the O.C. cooler than Walt Disney's cryogenic chamber.
-3.5 stars out of 5-
JONATHAN RINGEN
(Posted: Jun 16, 2005 in Rolling Stone)
46. The Willowz
The second disc from these O.C. kids is a sweet-and-sour cocktail of buzz-saw guitars, Stooges propulsion and coed sloganeering -- not to mention the rare garage-rock album that was actually recorded in a garage. Barnburners like "Cons and Tricks" set catchy choruses over a minimalist rush of sloppy grooves and guitars, and after blasting through twenty cuts in just under an hour, singer-bassist Jessica Reynoza intones, "We can die now." Not so -- they need only catch their breath.
-Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Record of 2005"
Spin (p.103) -
"They've got a bluesy Stones stomp, a singer with a Robert Plant howl, and 20 tracks of crunchy-chord garage pop..." - Grade: A-
Uncut (p.94)
- 3 stars out of 5 - [They] play bratty garage-punk with a psychedelic twist, packing so many drum fills, handclaps, off-kilter harmonies and rambunctious riffs into these 20 tracks that the effect is dizzying."
TALK IN CIRCLES
1. Ulcer Soul
2. Unveil
3. Cons & Tricks
4. Making Certain
5. Dead Ears
6. Blind Story
7. We Live On Your Street
8. Shreik
9. What's Wrong Is Right
10. No Name Notes
11. Lock Me Out
12. Toy
13. Horn Song
14. Heartstrings
15. Sleep At Night
16. Equation #2
17. Linear Communication
18. Walk Straight
19. Categories
20. We Can Die Now
What's Wrong Is Right (Steve & Hiro)
Toy (Joe & Simon)
