Biography
Visually and sonically reminiscent of Blonde Redhead, Wet Confetti places a waifish Asian bass-playing frontwoman in front of two male musicians on drums and guitar. Their music resists easy labels, occupying post-punk space largely because it registers as too clean and new wave for punk yet too gritty and no wave for pop. The band veers between an extreme Sonic Youth noise assault and breathy Ladytron dance-rock, merging these threads into an angular amalgam of styles. Bassist Alberta Poon and guitarist Dan Grazzini, who handled vocals at the outset, began crafting angular post-punk recordings together while still in high school during the late ’90s. Their Mormon hometown of Orem, UT, showed little appetite for off-kilter rhythms, noisy feedback, or an overt lack of melodies, so the duo relocated first to Seattle, home of Sub Pop, then to Olympia, WA, home of K Records. They ultimately settled in Portland, OR, and recruited drummer Mike McKinnon. As a deafening threesome, they performed at numerous house shows and small clubs before beginning work on This Is So Illegal (Do It Fast) in 2004. Fellow Portlander Dave Allen, the former bassist of Gang of Four, was struck by their stuttering time signatures in particular and offered to produce the follow-up album, Laughing Gasping. Released in late 2006, the record represented a modest move from their noisier early recordings toward polished dance-rock, with punk veterans Allen and former Shriekback member Mike Cozzi capturing a surprisingly glossy snapshot of the band’s sound.
Albums
