The Garden

The Garden is a punk duo hailing out of Orange County, California, and man, they are so very very strange; but these two oddballs are strange in the best possible way. Twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears aren’t afraid of being themselves, and the neo-punk they create is hard to even classify as “neo-punk.” The twins are trying to popularize the term “vada vada.” According to the band, vada vada is an all encompassing way to characterize their genre, aesthetic, and lifestyle. It’s difficult to imagine the inner-workings of minds so wild they can’t articulate themselves properly with existing terms, and that’s a part of what makes this band function so well: the connectedness of these two. It must be a little easier to articulate and express your artistic vision with someone who shares all of your genes, even when the artistic vision is an 18 second barrage of a word they made up. (See track “Vada Vada”)

On their latest release, simply titled haha, they hit you hard and fast with 17 tracks spanning only 34 minutes. Their rapid fire approach perfectly encapsulates everything punk (or vada vada) is at its core: raw, energetic, and hard hitting. The Garden’s rapid fire is even quicker on their debut full length, The Life and Times of a Paperclip, where they punch you directly in the face for 18 minutes over 16 tracks. The songs fly by so quickly, and often in such a unique way that you’re entirely unsure what just happened, and while you’re reeling you frantically try to latch on to what the current track is beating you with. But it’s not angry, and it’s not aggressive. The music is playful, and fun, and tongue-in-cheek. They are absolutely nailing the vibe they’re going for. They don’t care, they really just want to have a good-ass time existing, and they can jump from sweet and melodic, to loud and raw and back again about seven times over in a project.

Keep doing you, The Garden, and others will latch on to the vada vada. » – Tyler Sanford

Catch The Garden with Minden live in Portland December 11 at Mississippi Studios