Anytime, Anywhere by The Wanderer’s Rest
Milwaukee quartet The Wanderer’s Rest resided at the folky periphery of 1960s garage punk noisemakers. The band’s guitarist could squall up crazed, fuzz-toned guitar solos and riffage along their most hallowed of their Nuggets and Pebbles peers. But The Rest exchanged the proto-incel snottiness of so many such acts for soaring vocal harmonies and tenderness toward the objects of their affection.
It’s that sort of dichotomy that helps keep Anytime, Anywhere a compelling listen throughout its 13 tracks. Six were first heard on three singles that now can command hundreds of dollars each; the rest look to comprise the remainder of the band's studio work. The album, like so many packages that collect the entire oeuvres of groups who only issued a few 45s at most during their lifetimes, gives a picture of what may have been. For The Wanderer’s Rest (the name comes from, of all things, a cemetery), that may have been a lengthier run with their hybrid of earnest Beau Brummels sweetness and more rambunctious Count Five-styled clang. That they able to come up with winsome originals as well as bring unique touches to songs by Neil Diamond, The Young Rascals and Perry Como (!) speak to unrealized potential that could have taken the guys further than CYO dances. Anytime, Anywhere captures a nascent versatility that may have dissipated far too soon.
