Now You Know: D/Wolves

“Look at that guido in the parking lot,” says Patrick Scafidi, bassist of D/Wolves. His brother Brian (drums) and bandmates laugh with him, exuding a relaxed, adolescent vibe as they sip coffee outside a shop in Hillcrest. With three members still in high school and the oldest at 20 years old, D/Wolves have definitely got a head start. They have played several venues around town and have gotten exposure on 94.9 as well as reviews in Mesa Press and the blogosphere.

“The bars are cool, but we get kicked out right after we play,” says Jessie Cuevas (synth, samples).

“They draw the hugest Xs on our hands, and all the other kids think we’re straight edge,” adds guitarist Alex Pitta.

The group formed last summer and recorded a five-song EP in their garage, which was pressed last Saturday by noise label Little Fury Things. They are currently working on a full-length to be put out this year by Removador Records (founded by Jim James of My Morning Jacket).

D/Wolves (the name is a Dune reference) define a genre, if anybody ever gets around to naming it, best called something like post-spooky dreampop gypsygaze. Their Facebook calls it freakpop/mud/noise-fi.

“That’s the hardest question,” says Alex. “We don’t write with a style in mind.”

The band has been compared to the Shins, the Velvet Underground, Radiohead, Beethoven, and Animal Collective.

They cite their (equally eclectic) influences as the Soft Machine, Daedelus, My Bloody Valentine, Outkast, the Mars Volta, and CKY.

Guitarist Joel Williams and Jessie use laptops to trigger synth patches and samples of homemade circuit-bent Casios, pedals, and even an electronic parrot.

“We were using pedals with really brutal names like Black Death Metal Blood and Hot Monkey Screamer, just rewiring them, licking our fingers and touching the circuit boards,” says Jessie.

“We sing about ghosts and girls,” Joel says. “We stay up a lot, for, like, a couple days straight. That’s how we write our songs.”

“We are inspired by the paranormal,” says Jessie. “We were sponsored by Lucha Libre to find the Blue People in Proctor Valley. We have it all on videotape.”

When asked if they have seen a chupacabra, Alex replies, “We haven’t, but we believe they exist.”

D/Wolves plan to tour the West Coast with Paper Forest and Primitive Noyes this summer.

Next show is April 3 at Tin Can Ale House with Da Bears and Lanterns.

Got a wicked pissah new band? Let us know by sending your MySpace thing to barnaby_monk@sandiegoreader.com. We’ll check you/them out for our next installment of “Now You Know.”