The first place I really heard Wax Bananas was last summer at the BAM Festival in Woodle Park in Sturgis. I was impressed. It was four young men — Hadrian Michael Kindt on guitar and vocals, Sam Matson on lead guitar, Adam Mundorf on bass and Steven Cady on drums — who know their instruments and play well together.
This year, the Wax Bananas have become Fire Nuns, and have released their first CD, “Dad, Jr.” Their instrumentation is clean and intricate. They have the beat. I find myself bopping at the keyboard, listening to “Dad, Jr.”
I hear things that remind me of the Beatles, various metal bands I didn’t like well enough to remember a name and something I think of as Euro-pop. I might be missing some blatant imitation, but I doubt it it. These young men have taken too much care in everything else to be anything but original.
Some of the songs touch me. “Three In One” has a ’60s sort of appeal: “In the sunshine, don’t you know, you can do whatever you want.” “Everybody’s Perfect” takes me back to my childhood, and cracks open a little bubble of nostalgia that makes me smile.
“Girl From Another Town” is my favorite. It reminds me a bit of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America,” with a definite 21st century twist. Boy going to see his mom, meets girl on a bus, she puts him at ease and takes him home for tea and chocolate fondue. Mom is worried and calls the cops, “because she thought I was lost, but in my mind I had been found by the girl from another town.”
For more information on Fire Nuns, go to http://firenuns.bandcamp.com/ or email them at Firenuns@gmail.com.
Allow me a Proud Papa moment :)
