Wild Yaks are the most gloriously messy band. They spit out ragged lyrics that both romanticize New York and tear it apart. They break up and get back together again. Members quit and are folded back in. They record multiple versions of songs that were great to begin with. Sometimes it feels like they're running in place, aiming for an ideal that doesn't exist. Except watching the video, directed by Austin Rhodes, for "Last Tears of the Night," which features lots of group singing and drawings of diamonds flashing all over the screen, it starts to become clear that all these things are what make Wild Yaks the band that they are. Without the disasters and breakups and constant lineup switches, maybe their music would be boring, but the messiness is like an invisible member that never goes anywhere. With "Last Tears of the Night," the band makes screwing up, never sleeping and maybe (probably) drinking too much into a life that is something worth not just remembering with a twinge of nostalgia when you're older, but something worth treasuring as it happens.
