Wow
My Holiday In Space

Wow are born of the Oxford Art Factory, a trendy basement venue on Sydney's club strip where punters pay extra for drinks to be treated like shit by the bar staff. It is separated into two halves by a wall, with a band room on one side and a bar on the other where gorgeous scenesters vie for a spot in the social pages. It is also where the duo of Matt Crib and Bree Carter played their first gig, supporting Melbourne solo artist Popolice on a weekday night around the time he was playing slacker art-rock songs from Middle Ground. On stage the pair seemed like a good bridging point between the venue and its outsider headline act, playing the type of electro-pop with guitars so familiar in Sydney of late but with the bonus of an awkward demeanour that gave it a feeling of being slightly grungy and rough around the edges. It was an exciting start. Soon after came a single on the boutique Metal Postcard label (occasional home of dsico and The Emergency) called 'Common Species' that promised all sorts of fun times ahead.

Unfortunately, it seems that Wow have wandered too far into that other room of the Oxford Art Factory since then. The first product of their deal with Levity, a record label run by a clothing brand, was a "viral" publicity clip plastered with logos and cut to resemble a Channel [V] segment that showed Crib and Carter in hipster attire being kicked off stage by an old lady. The most grating thing about the video, posted to YouTube and sent to the band's mailing list to drum up interest ahead of this release, was that it burned credibility and money (for whichever marketing type presumably came up with the idea) without even doing what it was supposed to. As a publicity stunt it was about as controversial as a wet mop. The record itself, a five-track EP called My Holiday In Space, isn't as empty as its promotion but isn't enough to redeem it either. Of the five tracks, one or two are duds and none live up to the earlier single. 'Icy Cold' and 'No Aspirations' are the best – the former sounds a little like a heavier version of Muscles and the latter an ad for iTunes. Wow need to find some inspiration before tackling an album.

by Andrew Ramadge