Back in July, Wavves (aka Nathan Williams) and Say Anything (aka Max Bemis) announced a collaborative album called Cherry Soda. It was a somewhat surprising collab considering the two artists came up through different galaxies within the greater rock universe, but it made sense in that both have always been snotty, irreverent hooksmiths and polarizing figures. Cherry Soda was supposed to come out this Friday, but the rollout ground to a halt two weeks ago when a 17-year-old girl accused Bemis of a months-long inappropriate relationship carried out via social media, texting, and phone calls.
When the allegations came down, Williams quickly distanced himself and the new album from Bemis. “In a personal level I don’t know the guy I’ve hung out with him 3 times when he was on the studio on a professional level he was awful,” Williams wrote, framing Cherry Soda as a Wavves album with a tacked-on Say Anything affiliation: “The real thing that hurts is he spent 3 days in the studio and I spent 11 months.” He then vowed to return to the studio on Labor Day to remove Bemis from the album and make it a straightforward Wavves release.
As of today, the rejiggered Cherry Soda is set for release the day before Halloween. It’s preceded by new single “Pinesol,” which blurs Green Day and Nirvana in that way Williams has always done so well. The bridge in particular caught me by surprise. Williams calls Cherry Soda his attempt to make an early-2000s mall-emo record, which may explain how Bemis originally came into the picture, but “Pinesol” just sounds like a rock-solid Wavves song to me.
Here’s Williams with some background on the track:
I combined a bunch of cold cases I’d been interested in at the time. Mostly stories of ppl using household cleaners to try and cover up their tracks. I dunno. I got tired of writing about myself so I went Forensic Files on it. God I hate writing these press quotes. Wish I could drink some Pinesol right now.
Listen below.
Cherry Soda is out 10/30 on I Surrender Records. Pre-order it here. They’re going to be destroying so many copies of the original version.
