Wylie Something – Up Through the Rust
If you ask Buffalo songwriter Jacob Smolinski, the creative force behind Wylie Something, his music is tied directly to the calendar. “Everything is seasonal to me, revolving around periods of time in our quad seasons of B-LO, NY,” he explains, comparing the seasonal vibes of previous Wylie releases. “Dimes was early Spring. Picnic? Summer. But sometimes… you get something evergreen.” His latest EP, Up Through the Rust, released August 29th, is one of those evergreen moments, but one that feels perfectly suited for the here and now. “It just sounds like early Fall to me,” Smolinski says, and he’s right. The five-song collection is a hazy, scrappy, and distinctly satisfying slice of slacker rock that feels like that first truly crispy day after a long, hot summer. Bust out those denim jackets, folks. Up Through the Rust is our album of the week.
This release, his 14th in 11 years, marks a return to a truly solo process, with Smolinski performing and recording everything himself for the first time since 2022’s Scatter the Pieces. That hands-on approach led to some pretty interesting experimentation (lap steel, anyone?), resulting in songs that are as dense as they are exhilarating. “The theme for Up Through the Rust sonically was throwing everything at the wall and dialing back slowly,” he says. “From an instrumentation perspective, I think after a while it becomes incredibly fulfilling to push yourself through the ringer to make new sounds or try new approaches. The more you play, the more chances you can take.”
The new sound finds a delicious middle ground between his lighter singer-songwriter fare and the hard-hitting sludge of his other project, Raybees. To get into that headspace for recording, Smolinski looked to artists who occupy a similar lo-fi space with “quirked-up recordings,” citing inspirations like Philly-based genre benders Spirit of the Beehive, gazey folk duo Babehoven, and an “On the Beach era Neil Young” as pillars for the EP’s sound.
The EP opens with “Counter,” a heavy-duty, fuzzy blast of stoner rock, with that trusty lap steel wailing through heavy distortion, all anchored by Smolinski’s re-established confidence behind the drum kit. From there, it moves into EP highlight, “Literal Child,” a masterful blend of jangle-pop and what he dubs “jet engine guitars.” He explains the sound as a “complete happy accident,” the result of blending two different guitar takes through a $100 3-watt amplifier with the gain knob cranked. “Happiest accident of the whole dang project.”
The EP’s emotional (and literal) centerpiece is “God’s Country,” a laid-back slice of slacker rock that listens like a grilled cheese – warm, melty, and comforting. The lap steel returns here, this time clean and weeping over a rhythm section that carries much of the song’s melody. The track, which lent the EP its title, is lyrically rich, painting a picture of escape and renewal with lines like “had enough / got my fill / a hundo miles out / where the stars start to sing” and the poignant desire to “grow up through the holes that rust ate.”
The record’s back half is just as strong. “1000 Words is Too Much” lives up to its name, a snappy blast of shimmering, underwater fuzz that clocks in at just over a minute and showcases Smolinski’s vocal dexterity as he shifts from his gravelly baritone to a smooth falsetto. The EP then closes with the twangy doze of “Light’s On, But Nobody is Home,” a vessel for some of the best lyrics on the release. Smolinski calls the line “Shitkickin’ my way through the city” the EP’s thesis statement, and it’s a fitting one. These songs find serious footing in the everyday, a sentiment captured perfectly in the brilliant economy of Smolinski’s lyrics elsewhere in the track: “found a puddle with good reflection / I ain’t pretty but I’m nice.”
So what keeps Wylie Something churning out the good stuff? For Smolinski, it’s not about chasing trends or forcing an outcome; it’s about honoring the process. “Sometimes you push the envelope a bit, sometimes you sink into what you know and that’s like eating a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy,” he reflects. “There are no right answers in recording or releasing music… To me, it’s just being excited about the songs as they flow. Can I get a hell yeah?” Hell yeah. Bandcamp is waiving their fees this Friday, so go snag some music and support local artists in the process.
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Ronald Walczyk