Every Salem Wolves song tells a story. From singer/guitarist Gray Bouchard channeling 1692 Salem Witch Trials victim Giles Corey with DGAF shouts of “More Weight” to the life lessons of “Teenage Wonder” (which is probably about you or me or that one guy we both know), the deviantly cool guitar-rock band has consistently delivered a lyrical punch and wallop alongside its gritty, black-surf sound.
This morning, the Wolves have announced that after an EP and a string of high-voltage singles, their debut full-length album, Tooth & Nail, recorded with producer Shaun Curran at Napoleon Complex, will be out this winter. And the first taste of the LP comes from new single “Shameless”, a head-shakin’ skeletal freak-out of a track recorded at Converse Rubber Tracks with Dave Minehan and mixed and mastered at Ugly Duck Recording Studios in Brighton.
“Shameless” is, once again, probably about someone you know. Bouchard tells Vanyaland the track “is about being young and in love with someone who brings out the worst in you. Not just oil and water, but nitro and glycerine.”
And like all things pertaining to life and the fragility of it all, this one has no happy ending.
“There are a lot of songs that romanticize this kind of love, that make it all seem very ‘star/crossed’ and passionate, but at the core of ‘Shameless’ is the terror that one of these days this person you can’t seem to fully give up will kill you,” he adds. “No amount of faux-tough guy, ‘whiskey soaked’ posturing will save you from it.
Catch the Wolves August 27 at Ralph’s in Worcester with fellow Class of ’16 Rock And Roll Rumblers Analog Heart, The Devil’s Twins, and The Knock Ups, before they swing back into North Shore territory with a Monday night romp August 29 at OPUS in Salem.
