hey willpower

Scottish indie rock act Bis' overtures were expressed rather neatly in its 1997 single "Tell It to the Kids": "And now, coming through the airwaves into your home/Introducing the new transistor heroes." San Francisco's hey willpower lacks a similar expressive salutation, but it shares Bis' affinity for trash culture, "kandy pop," and smug phrasing.

hey willpower eschews caps as much as it does any sense of adult maturity. The group's debut release, P.D.A., is full of enough lyrical piffle to convince you that chief songwriter Will Schwartz (who also plays in Imperial Teen) would draw just as much joy assembling a monkeys' tea party as he would pop songs. From "Magic Window": "With you my work is never done/Be there from Lent to Ramadan," or "I can make you scream/I'm better than a Krispy Kreme."

Related Content

• Michael Jackson's Hair Gets Turned into a Roulette Ball (We're Not Kidding)
  December 14, 2011
• Beware Restaurateurs: Michael Jackson Could Cost You $40,000
  September 12, 2011
• Michael Jackson News: Jury Selection in the Conrad Murray Trial Is Not Actually News
  September 9, 2011
• Six Child Musicians It's Okay To Like. No, Really.
  May 16, 2011
• What Happens When Children Start a Band
  January 17, 2012

More About

• Will Schwartz
• Tomo Yasuda
• Paul Stanley
• Michael Jackson
• OutKast

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The six-piece outfit works within simple dance-pop parameters. The dinky, ebullient melody of "Hundredaire" mimics the Wake's "Crush the Flowers" or Outkast's "Hey Ya!" Off the Wall–era Michael Jackson is hinted at in the disco textures and breathy background vocals of "Not Trippin'." Electronic musician Tomo Yasuda ensures that P.D.A.'s bass throbs and that its rhythms titillate, but any carnal dancefloor tension is quickly sapped by Schwartz, whose preteen sex metaphors rank somewhere between trip-hop artist Earthling and Paul Stanley of Kiss. Immaturity isn't necessarily a sin, but when it's used to mask the fact that you have nothing interesting to say ... well, that's a strike against any new transistor hero.