Thanks to Odd Future, one of indie's biggest talking points over the past few months has been boys behaving badly. Adolescent and slightly post-adolescent males-- their anger, humor, ennui, cruelty, sensitivity, and self-pity-- have been scrutinized by all manner of thinkpiece-penners and armchair sociologists.
A measure of each of those qualities is present in the bratty Brit-punk trio Let's Wrestle and its sophomore effort, Nursing Home. Led by singer and songwriter Wesley Patrick Gonzalez, this band of early twentysomethings comprehensively captures the mindset of young men kicking and screaming against their inevitable transition into adulthood. Musically the group strikes a familiar slacker balance between being engaging and slapdash. Punky 1990s influences abound, running the gamut from Green Day to Supergrass to Weezer, highlighted by some wonderfully melodic lines from bassist Mike Lightning. In general spirit, Let's Wrestle slot neatly alongside those bands as well as recent English groups like the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, and Art Brut.
Much like many of their forebears, these kids also make humor out of idle bullshit-- opener "In Dreams Part II" imagines a nighttime phantasmagoria that includes "two Greek men fighting in a pharmacy" and a guy bragging about having slept with Queen Victoria. Yet their jokes are also sometimes tinged with meanness-- witness "Bad Mammaries", a sour screed against an overly lascivious middle-aged lady. At the same time, Let's Wrestle are capable of tenderness. "If I Keep on Loving You" and "I Am Useful" are winsome pop songs; meanwhile, "For My Mother" expresses true empathy for its titular subject, as Gonzalez and his mates sonically make their most pronounced evocation of Weezer.
For the most part, however, you get a snapshot of irresponsible young dudes not giving a fuck, Peter Pans wanting to be boys forever. A few of the songs nail the attitude with their titles alone: "I'm So Lazy", "I Will Not Give In", and "I Forgot". Most fascinating though is "In the Suburbs", which finds Gonzalez idealizing a life where "I'll have dinner with my mother and play computer games all night." Certainly it's fair to read the song as tongue-in-cheek, but Let's Wrestle also do a really good job of convincing you that they have pretty intimate knowledge of that coddled, layabout lifestyle. These are entirely representative growing pains from a group of kids who seem convinced that being a full-on adult means you might as well be in a Nursing Home.
