Who ARE the Wailin' Wolves?

If you haven't heard the names Levi-John Wolf and Alex Whelan with regards to music lately, you must live under a rock. The duo's newest indie project, The Wailin' Wolves (get it? Take the last names and change the spelling a little bit, you'll get it!), has generated quite a bit of buzz lately with the leak of what is being regarded as their new single, "There". While Wolf was not available to comment for this article, Whelan wrote us an email stating, "Please please PLEASE do not illegally download this song-I speak on behalf of the band when I say we are TRULY honoured to have generated such interest in our new music, but I hope that as our fans you will respect the fact that this song 'There' is not a completed product yet, we have quite a bit of work to go on it and what I sent Levi, the song that has been leaked, was only a very early draft. We sincerely hope that you continue to support our music, but again, filesharing is for sissies. Sincerely, AW."

Having originally gained notoriety for their influential caffeinated road-anthem group The Kingsfoil two years ago, Whelan and Wolf nearly dropped off the mainstream radar, with Wolf dabbling in top-secret classical compositions and Whelan eschewing all recognition for his work with The Kingsfoil in favor of garage-revival groups like The Pros of Con and Minus Gibb with friend/leader of the E's Stan "Buddy" Hall. Rumors have been flying ever since the informal hiatus of The Kingsfoil in late 2009 about jam sessions between assorted members of the band, the much-publicized drunken correspondence between drummer Taylor Brady and Whelan about "drop[ping] out and become f*cking rock stars, man" amounted to nothing more than a false hype, a highly anticipated Whelan-Thomas Shipley collaboration never materialized, and time seemed to erode any memory of the massive impact The Kingsfoil had in the Tucson caffeinated road-anthem scene. Fortunately for us fans of The Kingsfoil's sole LP, 2008's Don't Be a Bitch, this new Wailin' Wolves project seems like it might herald a second coming of the men we said were the "Heroes of the Big-Time Generation" way back when DBAB first dropped. One thing's for sure-if "There" is any indication of what's to come from the two in the future, we hope they just drop the charades, drop out of school and become rock stars again. Dear messrs. Whelan, Wolf, Brady, Shipley: it's time for you to RAWK again!

-Pitchfork News