Wild Party

Playing what they call “face-melting pop music” that mixes chunky guitars with subtle electronics and proud dance beats, Wild Party are a band from San Antonio, Texas whose music sounds more like the work of New York hipsters than folks from the Lone Star State. Wild Party were formed by lead singer Lincoln Kreifels and guitarist Lucas Hughes in 2009; the two had been friends since junior high, and while Hughes had played in local bands before, Wild Party marked Kreifels’ first time singing with a group. The two originally launched Wild Party as a recording project, putting songs on tape and then posting them online, but when a 2010 single caught the attention of British new wave revivalists the Wombats, Wild Party were invited to tour with them in the U.K. The overseas tour proved to be too much, too soon, and Wild Party took a hiatus of nearly two years before they re-formed with a new lineup, featuring Ethan Kaufmann on bass and Jake Kreifels (Lincoln’s brother) on drums. The new edition of the group put a greater emphasis on playing live, but they still focused much of their energy on recording, and in 2013 they released their album Phantom Pop as a digital download via iTunes. As the song “When I Get Older” gained buzz thanks to a music video, the album cracked the iTunes Top 100 Downloads chart, and in 2014 the album was reissued in physical form by the indie label Old Friends Records. By this time, Cary LaScala had replaced Jake Kreifels as the group’s drummer (LaScala also designs and markets a line of shirts for skinny guys, worn by Beck and Rivers Cuomo), and Wild Party were spending considerably more time on the road as their popularity grew. ~ Mark Deming