Wakey!Wakey!’s 2010 release Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You… is a jean-jacket clad hellion with a West Side Story fight. Michael Grubb’s voice tears down high school corridors, vexed by the prospect of being desk-jammed and belittled until the freedom bell’s toll.
“Square Peg Round Hole” opens on a staccato keyboard – a pencil-tapping youth with his eyes to the clock. Grubb dismisses the thin ticking hands, bellowing with pop-insurgency – “Square peg in a round ho oh oh oh oh oh oh oh le!” His weapon against a faculty of discipline is a rebounding rebel beat, a tattooed cheerleader.
“Dance So Good” counters with remorse, a piano ballad seated shame-faced in the principal’s office. Eyes closed, mouth open, and hands ivory-focused, Grubb is the image of an ardent love confessional, and his keyboard is a garage organ, dusty with desperation. Despite his attritional vocals the battle cry of the Casanova punk can still be heard: “ So tell me why we’re talking when we dance so good.”
A contemporary tale of rebellion, romance, and finger-snapping fight scenes, Wakey!Wakey! skips hearts and breaks school on Thursday, July 22 at Great Scott.