Veronica Falls

Cold Showers, a band formed in Highland Park, Calif. In 2010, fuses the brash power of the shoegazers with the smoky compulsions of the no-wavers—Cold Showers would fit as well on Projekt Records as they would on Factory or Captured Tracks, if only for an industrial subtlety in terms of electronics and acoustics. A piston-precision rhythm section drives all these loud, crafty pop songs. This is the pervasive pop mode against which Cold Showers cast themselves, but they aren’t fired in steel to the darkside. Founding members Jonathan Weinberg, Jessie Clavin, Brian Davila, Renee Adams and Chris King, added since, have a lumbering, sometimes terrifying beast of a band—we’d be remiss not to follow its caustic, addictive trek.

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1997. In a red brick building–in a modest fourth floor apartment with a view straight to the ocean–Juan Wauters bangs on a neighbor’s piano and notices the good feeling. The piano machine becomes emotion when Juan lays his knowledge on the keys. Juan calls these casual and unique occasions “The Wauters Symphonies.” Later, on a borrowed guitar, these concerns are witness to thick tears cried through songs that smiled once they realized existence. Time brought strength to Juan Wauters’ muscles. These are the tools that he uses to craft pieces that are his evolving search for that specific sound that will never come to be. The search is never ending and the crafting just adds layers to a skin that thickens. Life becomes the mere existence of those sounds that last forever. Follow the piano crafted symphonies from a head that wanders lonely.



Juan Wauters represents Queens, NY and is the leader of The Beets.