WOLF!—the beloved Brooklyn-based guitarist Scott Metzger’s “Telecaster rock trio” with bassist Jon Shaw and drummer Taylor Floreth—returns after a six year hiatus with a new EP, Adult Entertainment. Sounding like the love child of Pulp Fiction and The Endless Summer running off together under a full moon, WOLF!’s greasy instrumental vision weaves together elements of surf, rockabilly and boogaloo into delectable, bite-sized musical nuggets. As has been WOLF!’s modus operandi since forming in 2014, tone, touch and taste are always front and center.
“We had WOLF! up and running pretty hard back in 2016. There were two really great albums, a bunch of sold out shows, a few songs licensed to film and television and then for a laundry list of reasons, some still even unclear to us as a band, our attention got pulled towards other endeavors,” explains Metzger. “In 2018, we ducked back into the studio and put down some tracks, but again life pointed us in other directions and the recordings wound up on the back burner. As things started to open up following the pandemic, it quickly became apparent that it was time to finish up the EP and get the band back out playing shows again.”
Adult Entertainment refines WOLF!’s distinct approach heard on its first two albums with songs like “Ratso” and “Patty Cake,” but further expands the concept with “Hey Francis,” a sub-octave guitar rock gem underpinned by a clave rhythm, the lilting exotica of “Hawaiian Shirt” featuring Marco Benevento on Farfisa organ and the jaunty Gabor Szabo-meets-Bill Frisell set closer “Cottonmouth.”
“WOLF! has a thing. There’s an innate chemistry when the three of us play together,” says Metzger. “I don’t hear anyone else really playing instrumental music like this right now. It’s a guitar-centered band, but it’s not about guitar solos or fancy chops. It’s about three dudes in a room making music in real time that just straight up feels good, you get it the first time you hear it. I think we all need a little of that these days.”
Adult Entertainment is the second recent major release from Metzger following his acclaimed solo acoustic guitar album debut, Too Close To Reason. One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, Metzger tours with Grateful Dead revivalist phenomenon, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and can be found picking on numerous studio sessions, including those by Anders Osborne, Shooter Jennings, Craig Finn and Kelli Scarr. However, it’s Metzger’s instrumental trio, WOLF!, that reveals his own truly distinct voice as a guitarist.