Since forming Why? as a solo project in 2000, San Francisco-based Yoni Wolf has expanded the lineup to include a full band. Now joined by multi-instrumentalist Doug McDiarmid, guitarist Matt Meldon, and Wolf's drummer brother Josiah, the group continue to explore the fuller, broader compositions first heard on last year's Sanddollars EP.
The title track, "Rubber Traits", is lifted from Why?'s third album, Elephant Eyelash. It's a salient example of how the group have developed over the past year or so: heavily Pavement-influenced melodies and late 60s vocal riffs integrate with Wolf's faux-naïve humor and that definitive "feelin' good" West Coast sound. Many of his lyrics reference the Bay Area in favorable and colorfully descriptive ways, and it's unsurprising that, as an Ohio native, Wolf seems to relish in the city that provided a platform for his musical endeavors and community.
"Rubber Traits" builds around a selection of Wolf's surreal observations, ranging from the romantically odd ("I want to kiss like taffy, and hump gentle on a bed of nails") to the macabre: ("and watch a fly hit a pane of glass until he gets real bony and his stomach swells up and he dies"). As a whole, the lyrics flow through the music like curiously nonsensical daydreams, but their slightly sinister edge infects the mass of major chords and prevents them from sounding too sugary. On the EP's three previously unreleased tracks, Why? flourish as a band. The guitars are delicately jangly, and McDiarmid's piano chords embellish songs like "Pick Fights" to strikingly simple effect, intersecting Wolf as he reflects on his Ohio days. ("The best place to pick a fight is in the Midwest...").
Although Why? has always been one of the more accessible, pop-oriented artists on anticon, Wolf really shines when he drops the happy-go-lucky tonal gloss in exchange for darker lyrics and beats. "Deceived", the final track on Rubber Traits, delivers a low tone monologue cut over steady, atmospheric rhythms that recalls the introspective, fluid rapping of fellow anticon associate Buck 65. Including this sharp-witted excerpt on Rubber Traits show how multi-faceted Wolf's music can be, while drawing tighter comparisons to his involvement with side projects cLOUDDEAD and Hymie's Basement.
Appended to the audio disc is filmmaker Ravi Zupa's wonderfully creepy video for "Rubber Traits". Going along with the Californian, off-key psychedelic vibe perpetuated by Why?, Zupa uses headache-inducing colors and flurries of flower icons to decorate his bizarre, and often very funny, pastiches. These are mostly set around his collages of dog photographs in which the canine snouts are replaced by the moving mouths of the band members. The mustached spaniel-- which looks worryingly like Frank Zappa-- is very effective during the Beach Boys "oooh wee oooh" chorus, though the icing on the cake has to be when Wolf juggles grapefruits in a bath shared by a rather shocked and toothy pug.
