Wax Fang - Serenity Now

Six years ago, the American Dad episode “Lost in Space” aired on television. I am a lukewarm fan of the shot, but I really enjoyed this episode; “Lost is Space” is definitely my favorite episode. There is a moment where the character Jeff has his mind probed so everyone can see what his memories of love are like, and the whole sequence plays like a music video with the Wax Fang song “Majestic.” A song I have sang along with so many times now that I can sing the entire thing from memory at any time, no matter how drunk.

“I thought I was asleep when I met you,
My heart liquified, and I sighed, oh, this must be a dream.
If I forget to set the alarm, and sleep on through the dawn, don’t remind me,
Cause I’d rather be dreaming of you, than sleeping along.” 

I did not look that up, just typed it out, no problem.

Two years ago, I wrote about Wax Fang in this music blog. I mentioned of course that I was introduced to the band by watching American Dad “Lost in Space,” and I talked briefly about how much I like “Majestic” but I try to be unique, because I like to think I am clever, so I instead focused the review on the song “Dawn of the Dead of the Night of the Hunter.”

Here is the link to that Music in Review blog post: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2017/09/wax-fang-dawn-of-dead-of-night-of-hunter.html

It did not take me long after hearing “Majestic” on American Dad to discovery and learn to appreciate other songs like “Dawn of the Dead of the Night of the Hunter” by Wax Fan; obviously. As time went on, I continued to just fall in love with Wax Fang, there are dozens of their songs I listen to now on the regular. They are probably one of my favorite active bands.

Wax Fang’s fourth studio album “Victory Laps” came out in 2017. The same year I wrote my original Wax Fang review. It is no coincidence that “Victory Laps” made a strong presence in my music listening habits that year. Even now, a few of the songs from that album continue to get plenty of play on my music playlist, both at home and at work.

Two songs from “Victory Laps” in particular have endeared themselves to me “Do the Math” and “Serenity Now.”

I am a CPA and my accounting degree has a minor in mathematics, so I tend appreciate math and others who express an appreciation for the scientific field, so naturally “Do the Math” really speaks to me. Nonetheless, today I would rather discuss “Serenity Now” as I do appreciate that track even more.

Before we go any further, I would remiss if I did not point out the obvious Seinfeld reference, “serenity now.” Who could forget Frank Costanza’s mantra to help calm himself? What a hilarious episode, and the song “Serenity Now,” is a fun homage to the iconic episode from the greatest comedy show of all time. 

Since Seinfeld is clearly an inspiration on this Wax Fang song “Serenity” now, we would rightly assume that there would be a connection in comedy, however I am entirely sure that is the case. The emotional take away for the song “Serenity Now” is not one of humour but of calm. We all have stressful lives, well I guess there are a handful of lucky bastards out there who lead easy lives, but for vast majority of us, life can and does get pretty stressful. There are many possible cures for what ails us, but a great smoothing friend in the battle against anxiety is music, for music holds a secret and to know it can make us whole. That last part is a Triumph lyric, but I thought I would throw it in there for fun.

Wax Fang’s “Serenity Now,” is very uplifting. There is a calling howl in the intro that calls us in, and the flow of the rhythm jumps very rapidly and hooks the listener and takes them on a fine trot through the song. It is a song with a good amount of speed and energy but is very mellowing all the same.

There are three short verses in “Serenity Now” all about being overcome with panic and wanting an escape of some kind, and each time this is a setup for the chorus that greatly proclaims to us to accept simply that we may not know why, or what to do, and to simply let go.

“Under attack,
Now sit back and relax a bit,
Let go, let go.
I'm on a roll,
And now I'm losing control,
I gotta let go, let go.
Have I lost my mind...
Or is it just the sign of the times?”

I like the chorus as lot. I really like how singer Scott Carney bellows out the “let go” part, it does come across to me like a demand but a powerful suggestion, one Carney seems confident you will accept, or at the least, that you should.

Let go, just let go. Let go of all that anxiety and fear. Let is slip through your fingers like the irrelevant grains of sand they are. With enough time passed, no one will care, not even yourself, about the haunting nagging small troubles that plague you in the intermediate. So just let go.

I found this mantra so deeply relaxing. Carney’s goal for “Serenity Now” was surely to share the feeling of calm acceptance, and oh now richly he accomplished this goal. Possibly his best song.

Returning to Seinfeld, the element comedy is not obviously present in the song “Serenity Now” but a literal relation to Frank Costanza’s intention with his mantra is parallel and present. Why does Frank Costanza say “serenity now” to himself? To combat his anger and stress. It is a call to calm, just like Wax Fang’s song. By taking this literal interpretation of this comedy show’s moment, something a of a meta joke is at play. It is like Carney took this joke from Seinfeld and played it straight, which sort of works for humours sake. Nonetheless, I do very much enjoy the powerful relaxing mood of the song and the takeaway message.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

Wax Fang - Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter

It is the nature of progressive rock to be very experimental. It is also only natural to be highly psychedelic. Musicians have been creating what we consider progressive rock for over a half century now which raises the question, how do bands continue to be “progressive” in rock and roll. The best advise I could give would be, embrace the strange.

Wax Fang is a strange band. I have been listening to them a lot for the past several years and somehow, they continue to surprise me. They are a perfect blend of experimental, psychedelic and strange.

Effectively a two man group, Wax Fang hail from Kentucky, Scott Carney performs lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano and others instruments, meanwhile Jacob Heustis plays the bass and keyboards and also provides the backing vocals. They used to have a drummer named Kevin Ratterman. Wax Fang have been making music since 2005 but their popularity surged significantly when they had a successful tour with fellow Kentuckians My Morning Jacket, followed by a very interesting appearance on American Dad.

I would like to tell you that I liked Wax Fang before they were cool, but I would be lying, I discovered Wax Fang through American Dad. I do not watch American Dad regularly but my favorite episode is the strange space rock opera that was “Lost in Space,” where… well it was strange. There is a scene where the aliens probe Jeff’s mind to see his memories of Hailey, and what we see is a not true love, and it is done as a sort of music video for Wax Fang’s song “Majestic.”

Majestic on American Dad:

I had thought about doing a review on “Majestic” but I failed to strike while the iron was hot. That episode of American Dad aired four years ago (2013), also “La La Land” the album that houses the song “Majestic” came out ten years ago (2007). No mater how I view it, I am late to this party. “Majestic” is a great song, and I think a lot of people know that without me writing anything about it. However, despite their recent surge in notoriety, Wax Fang remains a cult band, most of their work is unknown, and they have songs other than “Majestic.”

With a title like “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” it is only natural I would be take notice. “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” is a long title for a song, but I knew immediately the references at hand, Wax Fang had combined the title of two famous movies, “Dawn of The Dead” and “The Night of the Hunter.” “Dawn of The Dead” 1978 is George A. Romero’s second installment in his zombie movies, and in my opinion the best one. “The Night of The Hunter” 1955 is a classic film about a religious conman terrorizing a poor family after serving time with the condemned father who confessed to hiding ten thousand stolen dollars. The music video contains clips from both movies as well cuts from 1974’s “Deathdream,” which is about family wishing their son home from Vietnam after he has been killed, and he shows up as a vampire, or something, it is not entirely clear, the movie is pretty ambiguous.

The visuals created by the combination of these three movies are rather memorizing, and the video attached I found to be very enjoyable, regardless if you have seen any of the films in question or not. There are a lot of fan made videos online, a stupid quantity really, so I naturally assumed that is exactly what the video attached in this blogpost for “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter.” To my surprise that is the official music video. I knew George A. Romero never copyrighted any of this works, which made him significantly less wealthy and also kind of a hero, and I guess the other two films are also in the public domain. I would say it was clever to do such a thing, Wax Fang using clips from, presumably movies they really enjoy, to make a music video that are not protected properties, but it actually speaks to another side of the band, they are a humble bunch. I have no idea what Heustis and Ratterman look like, they are perfectly content to let their music to the talking for them, and instead of a focus on the two musicians we get an interesting art piece combing a great song and three films.

I went and watch “Deathdream” because of this video, and had I not seen the other two films before I surely would have been inspired to seek them out too.

Wax Fang does not follow convention when it comes to song writing. Their lyrics are choppy and pacing is deliberately erratic, there is a blend of short and long sentences making up the content, and yet it works. It is intentionally jarring, the shorter sentences have a deeper impact by the longer presence they hold.

There is an added element of strangeness in Wax Fang songs, for they are very experimental in all things.

“Come to get you,
They’re crawling out of mirrors, into your rooms,
They walk out of the shadows,
Nothing you can do,
Don’t bother trying to hide ‘cause, they’re gonna find you.
It’s just a matter of when.

And when they do, they’ll take you by the arms and tear you in two,
Your spirit from your body,
They’ll make you choose, which one you get to keep and which one you lose,
'Fore you make your decision, listen here.”

I am unsure if the lyrics are meant to be literal and describing some sort of demons ripping the souls out of people, or if it is entirely metaphorical about society forcing to choose to artistic or productive. Will you give up your creative soul or your needed body? There is a lot to take in. The first few listens is was expecting some talk of zombies or conmen, but I suspect the name is more tribute than anything else. Given the lack of identifiable connection between the three films and the song’s lyrical content, and also the vast possibilities for interpretation of those said lyrics, it could be believed that “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” is an embrace of the nonsensical, but I do not believe that. I have not pieced together exactly what this song is about, or what the title has to do with anything, but I think something very deep is being sung about here, and I look forward to figuring it out, or someone commenting below.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves