The Wolves of Glendale bring joy to audiences, one “stupid” song at a time

T
he the first time Ethan Edenburg, Eric Jackowitz and Tom McGovern hung out, wrote a song. It was March 2022 and they were in Los Angeles playing their instruments when the conversation turned to what it would be like to have a midlife crisis while visiting Las Vegas.

“It's Sunday on the Strip. My divorced ass moved to Vegas,” McGovern began singing as he played the piano. “My wife left and took the children. And it's a good thing he did 'cause they were annoying as shit. Edenburg grabbed his guitar and Djakovic got behind the drums. “A skateboard gave me a vapor, and it was great,” Edenburg said before breaking into the chorus. They added another line about strip clubs and imagining Frank Sinatra shooting a busboy, and within hours they had written their first single, “Vapin' in Vegas.”

“I think there was this collective feeling of 'Holy shit!' McGovern talks about the group's music and comedy. “It was effortless,” adds Jackowitz.

Just nine months later, the three men, now known as the Wolves of Glendale, took the stage in Las Vegas… performing “Vapin' in Vegas.”

They had no intention of starting a comedy band. Edenburg and Jackowitz, who have known each other since high school, were in a group called the Cooties that had recently broken up and were hesitant to dive back into a similar band. McGovern, meanwhile, was still settled after moving from New York to Los Angeles, but that creative “spark” they felt when they first met made them realize they had something rare: “We speak the same comedic language,” McGovern says, adding that the trio fit together like a puzzle. Edenburg plays guitar while Jackowitz is on drums and McGovern rounds out the group on keyboards. Even their respective vocal ranges lend a nice three-person harmony. “It's funny, but we feel like we're creative soul mates.”

It didn't hurt that they got an early blessing from comedy rock gods Kyle Gass and Jack Black of Tenacious D. “I was working with Kyle Gass as a drummer and we had become very close,” Jackowitz recalls. “When they first invited me to come with Ethan and Tom, I was like, 'I don't know, guys. Be in a comedy band? What do you think, Jack Black and Kyle Gass?' They say, “You should definitely do that.” So it was strange to receive spiritual guidance from them, as everything happens in this strange kismet-style way.”

“This whole band runs on kismet,” says Jackowitz. And he might not be wrong – in just two years since the band's formation, they've opened for Tenacious D, David Cross and Jukebox the Ghost. appeared at the Netflix Is a Joke festival. and are on tour in support of their first studio album, which was released in January.

Songs like “The Gym,” “Loud Ass Car” and “Free Sample” spin wild, unexpected comedic narratives into radio-ready tunes. Their song “Olivia” tells the story of a man who falls in love with his roommate, who happens to be a ghost who must eat puppies (yes, puppies) to survive.

“The beauty and freedom of musical comedy is that we can also have a song like 'Shrimp,' where we just scream the word 'shrimp' over a Daft Punk beat for two minutes,” says McGovern. “Part of our mission statement is to make the stupid thing sound as good as you can.” Adds Jackovich: “We want people to think, 'You put so much work into this stupid, stupid idea.' ”

Even the name of the band suggests a kind of work ethic. “We needed something that straddled the line of tough and dumb,” says Jackowitz. “A wolf is very bad, and Glendale is a very sleepy suburb of Los Angeles where we happen to work. Additionally, the only other huge band to come out of Glendale is System of a Down, arguably the hardest band of all time. So we knew we were in good company.”

But more importantly, the Wolves of Glendale want everyone who listens to feel “suffocated with joy” — especially when they play a show where the crowd is unfamiliar with their work. “They have no idea what's going to happen,” says Edenburg. “And they'll sit there and look at me like, 'What a bozo you are.'

“Then after the show,” he says, “they'll come up and tell us they're now our biggest fan, and they were laughing the whole time. This, to me, is simply the best. This is a testament to what we do.”