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Wild Wild Wets

Sound description

Sounds like Elvis on acid, slapping Brian Wilson in the face.

RIYL

Trap Gold, the Old In Out, Vinyl Film, Dark Thirty, Jeans Wilder, B-52s, Jefferson Airplane, Command C

Inception

San Diego , 2011

Influences

The B-52s, the Penetrators, Jefferson Airplane, Iggy Pop, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Seeds, the Old In Out, Vinyl Film

Discography

Video(s)

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Wild Wild Wets was founded in 2011 by three former members of the Old In Out, who had recently split; Mike Turi (Trap Gold), Marco Salvatore Piro (Vinyl Film), and Ryan White (aka Ryan Vincent Bohan). They were joined by singer/keyboardist Priscilla Castro and bassist Taejon Romanik (Dark Thirty, Jeans Wilder, Wet Years). Piro and White/Bohan were only with the Old In Out during its final few months.

“We’re a party psychedelic rock band,” said Piro at the time. “We’re trying to make it an experience. Anyone can start a band and have five people on stage playing their hearts out, but we wanted to add something more for the concertgoer.”

Turi cites the Penetrators (New York’s, not San Diego’s) as a top influence. He and Bohan also have played in a side band called Trap Gold, founded in 2010 along with Kelly Sullivan and synth-bassist Chase Elliott (the Kabbs). Former Old In Out guitarist Rory Truesdale launched a solo project called Sleeping Ghost/Electric Crush.

In concert, the group has been accompanied by projection artist, John Kelley. “Kelley has been our projectionist since day one,” says Mike Turi. “I wanted to make sure that the band was a whole package of audio and visual energy. [Kelley] has put countless hours into it and has grown with us.”

In early 2013, the band released their debut Criminal Blue EP via Grizzly Records, who also produced a limited run of 300 blue 7-inch vinyl versions. Turi and Piro also have played in a project called Emerald Rats, whose debut Everyday Obstacle EP was released around the same time. Piro and Romanik have also served as the rhythm section for Jeans Wilder.

After Wild Wild Wets apparent split, keyboardist/singer Lex Pratt joined Soft Lions, founded by Megan Liscomb (Boy King).

The group resurfaced as a trio in late 2014, with Mike Turi (vocals/keys), Taejon Romanik (guitar), and Marco Piro (drums), with a debut full-length out in 2015 called 14th Floor (Grizzly Records/Rubber Brothers Records). One track from the album, "UK Drugs," was heard the following year in the A&E TV show Damien, based on the vintage film series The Omen. 14th Floor, pressed on vinyl by a Bordeaux, France label and dubbed "the French press LP," earned the band a San Diego Music Award for Best Album.

By 2015, it appeared the band's lineup was Mike Turi and Taejon Romanik, alongside drummer Ryan Hand (Tropical Popsicle), trumpet player Jason Crane (formerly of Rocket From the Crypt), and bassist Yegor Mackey. That summer, Turi, Romanik, and drummer Marco Piro recorded their sophomore full-length Prisom at L.A.’s Seahorse Studios (aka Handbag Factory) with Chris Kasych, who has recorded Wavves, Vampire Weekend, Haim, and Bruce Springsteen, as well as helping to record and mixing the Wild Wild Wets record 14th Floor.

Their second full-length Prisom was finally released in July 2018 via their own Yeah Yeah Yeah Blah Blah label and Grizzly Records. "The name Prisom comes from a friend who had been too caught up in the psychedelic world of her making," Turi told the Reader. "As the flowers began to wilt, she could see her prism vision imprison the freedom she had longed for in the first place." The release marked the official return, at least temporarily, of drummer Marco Piro to the lineup.

Over the next couple of years, the band released a 7-inch record and three digital singles. one of which, 2019's "The Fix," features Jason Crane of Rocket From The Crypt on trumpet and congas. Around the same time, Turi teamed up with another former member of the Old In Out, Rory Truesdale, to form a band called COMMANDc.

By 2022, Wild Wild Wets had paired down to a duo, Mike Turi and Taejon Romanik. A new single and video for "Holding" debuted that April, in advance of their full-length Love Always, mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Gorillaz, Pixies). Released in May, their first album in four years was recorded at Singing Serpent Studios by Grammy-nominated engineer Matt Van Allen (Anoushka Shankar). It was pressed on 180 gram "Heart String Pink" vinyl, as well as a limited edition of hand-numbered 180 gram iridescent "Starberry Jelly" vinyl.

A single and video were produced for their track "Say So." The video was created using vintage 1980s video switchers to emulate tape feedback, and old CRT monitors to create the banding and scan-lines. According to co-frontman Mike Turi, "Our good friend and producer, JeanCarlo Mendez, not only made the album happen, he has gone out of his mind putting together this wild visual video for 'Say So' using old-school analog video techniques from the 80s. His style and sensibility is obviously very much our vibe, and he and his teammate Brandon Mosquera nailed the edit on this project."

Turi's first self-animated video was created for their single "The Seer." The track itself features backup vocals by Shelbi Bennett (The Midnight Pine, The Havnauts), with a 4:20 minutes single version, and an album version that runs eight minutes long. "I championed this track to be recorded and it eventually grew to become one of our favorite tracks on the new album," says Turi. "The song was written about a mixture between the writing process, a love for that along with the mantra that comes with completing your art, but also acts as a mantra for living, in general. I am and have always been obsessed with cartoons and it's been a long-time dream to animate something of my own. Cosmically, I was able to use the last year of off-and-on pandemic scares to finally sink my teeth into the process. So many late nights of delirium spike this colorful dose of weirdness."

A video was created for their track "The Cut," featuring stop-motion animation created by Sierra Waller.

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