Wavves

An unlikely success story, Wavves were the undisciplined, ramshackle, lo-fi brainchild of San Diego counter-culture hero and skateboarder Nathan Williams. He was 21, working as an office clerk and writing a hip-hop blog when he started making primitive bedroom recordings of his songs on an old cassette recorder and circulated them on the Internet. Their raw DIY charm and crude energy, offering resentful messages of disenchantment and gloom, caused a major stir online and Williams released a constant stream of new material to further fuel interest.

With Williams joined by drummer Ryan Ulsh, it resulted in the debut album 'Wavves' which included tracks like 'California Goth' and 'Beach Goth' attacking goth fashion. Second album 'Wavvves' followed, although Williams' erratic behaviour on stage caused some notoriety. There were line-up changes, too, with Wavves becoming a trio of Williams, Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes (soon to be replaced by Jacob Cooper), releasing their surprisingly sophisticated third album 'King of the Beach' in 2010.

'Afraid of Heights' was released in 2013 followed by 'V' in 2015 and the collaborative album with Cloud Nothings 'No Life for Me'. They announced their sixth album 'You're Welcome' in 2016 and released it the following year on free streaming.