WIVES are a four-piece band from Queens, New York. Signed to the City Slang label, they released their debut single Waving Past Nirvana in March 2019. This was then followed up with tracks Workin' and The 20 Teens.

Wide-eyed and hyper-aware, WIVES' sound pulses with urgency. The quartet are the latest fit in a long lineage of New York's gritty, melodic-tinged punk-hook-driven, grungy dark-wave that's tethered to daily anxiety without resorting to cynicism. Both the noisy dissonance of Sonic Youth and the clever, cerebral sneering of The Fall simmer as touchstones within the band's music.

'Waving Past Nirvana' trudges forward, a sort of thesis for WIVES' sound. It delves unabashedly into feeling removed, its narrator rejecting spiritual enlightenment, literally 'waving past nirvana'. The swaggering cut pulls from the swaying beat of '80s rap, while the chorus jumps forward a decade into a grunge-tinged, anthemic roar.

WIVES are: Jay Beach (guitar, vocals), Andrew Bailey (guitar), Alex Crawford (bass), Adam Sachs (drums).