The Wilcox Wang Success Module, yes that’s a mouthful, came from out of nowhere with their new album The Great Reset. The 12-song album mostly stays in the early 90s snotty-midwest-punk lane (think Screeching Weasel, Connie Dungs). Some highlights for me are “Bash the Fash”, “Goodnight White Pride” and “No Justice No Peace”. The lyrical content, in case you hadn’t figured it out, does not follow the standard pop punk formula of tired love songs but rather bashes fascists, mocks QAnon followers, and condemns police brutality.
You can download the album on Bandcamp, or listen on Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you stream music. Consider supporting the Atlanta, Georgia-based band on Bandcamp even if you typically listen to music elsewhere!
The songs are mostly 2 minute punk rock fist pumpers, but they do mix it up a bit too; “I’ll Get Away With It” switches between 70s stoner rock and hyped-up power pop (think Black Sabbath meets the Marked Men) and “Running Away” slows it down with a kinda-cheesy-but-I-can’t-hate-it-no-matter-how-much-I-try swing rhythm with that one chord progression every early 90s punk band used for their silly slow song.
What the heck is the Wilcox Wang Success Module? In short, it is a theory often touted by conservative pundits to explain why poor people (aka non-white people) are always so darn poor, its because they don’t follow the Wilcox Wang Success Module:
- Graduate high school.
- Get a full-time job.
- Get married before having children.
Magic, right? According to singer/guitarist Benjamin Wilcox (he took his last name from the band name in proper Ramones fashion) “To me it kind of encapsulated the sheer absurdity of the conservative mindset.” Wilcox started the band with his friends Cynthia Success and Lawrence Wang in March 2020 “as a response to the notion that conservatism was the new punk rock.” On WWSM Bandcamp page, they refer to themselves as “left-wing, rad-fem, socialist punk outfit with a blatant disregard for any authority figure.” Which to me, sounds way more like punk rock than “conservatism”, amiright?
For fans of: Screeching Weasel, Scared of Chaka, antifascists, All those Plan-It X Records bands from the 90s
