Pop the box and you see an Egon Schiele drawing, an attenuated early modernist nude wearing her anxieties on her skin. It's a fitting visual reference, for the Willowz are a nervous band, also a raw, ambitious, self-challenging, brilliant and perplexing one. They have great hooks, a gift for casually tossing off little bits of humor and beauty, and this timeless unselfconscious quality that's easier heard than described. In the bland stew of indie rock, the Willowz are a toothsome morsel. (review from Scram Magazine #21)
The Willowz’s upcoming debut CD—the demos of which got major-label reps at their first show, the one that’s coming out on LA’s Dionysus in January? Slick and fatty; you could roll corn dogs with it. But live and unpolished, they’re Redd Kross’ Born Innocent, rolling down a hill in a trash can, punky kids pinching Nuggets riffs into sloppy-but-smarter-than-it’s-supposed-to-be teenage garage rock. Major labels, this is not your new Hives or your new Strokes, even if Eaton has some semifamous parent-ish people who maybe greased the process along a bit (recording engineers, ex-punk-rockers, Dee Dee Ramone’s art gallery proprietor, etc.). This is the good old stuff: "Get Down" is "Psychotic Reaction"; "End Song" is a slab of Troggs; "Rock & Roll Song" (which we have the feeling they rarely play) is early Velvets drone set for low lights and thick curtains—Reynoza tiptoes through call-and-response that’s perfect to nod off to ("Wake me up when everyone’s dancing . . ."). Nowicki (ex-CTW, who this paper apparently hated) rolls over those drums better than 17-year-olds are scientifically supposed to be able to, and Eaton sings like he has a time bomb lashed across his chest—gums flapping, no pauses for breath, singing, "I’m at a loss for words!" completely dishonestly.- Chris Ziegler(OC Weekly November 6, 2003)
THE WILLOWZ ARE COMING
Reissue w/ 4 additional tracks
1. Equation #6
2. Keep On Looking
3. Meet Your Demise
4. Questionaire
5. Interpretations
6. Put Together
7. Vagabondage
8. Something
9. Wake Up
10. Not You
11. Get Down
12. I Wonder
13. End Song
I Wonder (Michel Gondry)
Vans Eye View commercial
