Why is Wimps’ Garbage People on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Aggressive yet upbeat, fast paced and super fun power poppy punk by way of Seattle, Washington.
What does Wimps’ Garbage People mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
When I moved to Seattle in 2016, I was excited for a bunch of different reasons. In addition to the attraction of the breathtakingly gorgeous scenery, the breathable air, chill vibes, and walkable neighborhoods, incredible serendipity had brought several of my closest friends from both LA and New York to my new town at the same time.
Having grown up on Long Island, New York, Seattle and the “pacific northwest” held an exotic quality that has always fascinated me. Part of it is from ingesting such movies such as Singles and Sleepless in Seattle, but I don’t think you’ll be shocked to learn that much of it had to do with the music.
Like so many others from my generation, my entry point into the “Seattle scene” was a band by the name of Nirvana. While I hold tremendous love for that band to this day, I went on to dive much, much deeper into the city’s musical history.
But cutting back to my arrival in Seattle, one of my new co-workers named Jeff learned that I was into music and suggested that I check out a punk band called Wimps. I believe in fact that he sent me the YouTube link for “Giant Brain.”
I was hooked right away.
Two minutes of aggressive yet upbeat, fast paced and super fun power poppy punk. I’m an enormous fan of Fastbacks (and, spoiler, you’re going to be seeing more Fastbacks on this here list of the best 1,000 albums ever), and I love how Wimps provide a very similar vibe – both in terms of the upbeat alt rock-meets-punk and from the female lead vocals – but at the same time is very much its own thing.
Once “Trip Around the Sun” gets chugging up to full speed, it’s right in the sweet spot of fuzzy garage punk with strong hooks and vocals that I’m looking for.
“Quitter” starts off with a stompy, slower Green Day-ish beat before ramping up to Wimp-ier speed. I also dig how it’s about the boredom and listlessness that ensues when you do the “right thing” and quit something that’s bad for you.
Here’s a live version, fun stuff.
This album also sounds like
The aforementioned Seattle-based Fastbacks is the easy go to here, though there are differences in the bands’ sounds to be clear. There’s also some heritage here from some of their nerdy punk rock forebears, Devo being a great example.
Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Wimps’ Garbage People
The sound of Wimps and the album title, Garbage People, immediately makes me think of the song title, “Garbage Truck,” and a fake band, Sex Bob-omb, from the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Yeah, there’s that movie again, people.
Written by Beck, it’s perhaps my favorite song from one of my all-time favorite fake bands.
“I’ll take you to the dump, because you’re my queen.” Cracks me up every time.
Some stats & info about Wimps – Garbage People
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Punk, Punk Rock, American Punk, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Seattle Bands, Power Pop, Garage Punk, Garage Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Garbage People released? 2018
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #974 out of 1,000
Wimps’ Garbage People on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.