“We wanted to make a band that was so over the top and
ridiculous and over-confident that no one could possibly take us
seriously. So we had to throw an ode to Limp Bizkit,” singer Taylor
Young said. “There’s nothing more punk rock than misspelling a word like
Bizkit or Wizurdz and talking about skinning people’s asses with a
chainsaw, right?”
Limp Wizurdz is the sort of consistently comical and ridiculous group
that feels more like a Oklahoma-by-way-of-Portlandia sketch than an
actual band, with the absurdity highlighted by naming its second EP
after Gary England and writing several songs in tribute to the former
longtime local meteorology god.
“Jeff
and I were on the phone one night, and we used to think of song names
before we wrote them so that we’d have a concept to go off of,” Young
said.
“We started
talking about how we should write tribute songs for people, and Gary
England came up. At first, we said we were just going to write a song
called Waterloo Road and have tornado sirens as the intro, but it kind
of took off really quick after we wrote ‘Master Newscaster,’ and we
wanted to do more.”
But
the absurdity is matched only by its sincerity in providing everyone
within listening distance a good time. It’s testosterone-fueled escapism
intent on bringing the feeling of a Friday night whatever night the
band plays, helping forge a healthy scene for young punks along the
likes of Cosmostanza, Sunny Side Up, Psychotic Reaction and Your Mom.
That
used to mean more chaos than quality, but the band has grown up —
relatively speaking — and the songs on the freshly released Jeff Goes To College EP are easily Limp Wizurdz’s best yet.
“We’re still trying to find our sound, but it’s coming with time,” Young said. “I think Jeff Goes To College showcases two different sides of the band.”
Inspired
by Black Flag, Trash Talk and Title Fight (among many others), the more
measured but still heavy openers “Ronald” and “Quarterback” quickly
rocket off into the same breakneck speed, blink-and-you-miss-it punk
anthems that its steadily growing local following clamors for.
“Up
until now, everything we have done was super lo-fi and all done within a
day, with one mic, within one or two takes,” Young said. “This time
around, it’s something we can show people without being like ‘Yeah. This
sounds a lot better live...’”
Hey! Read This:
• Sunny Side Up interview
• Cosmostanza — Champs review
• Psychotic reaction interview
• Your Mom interview
