The band, not the personality test.
Sep 30th, 2009 by Tim
Right when I was feeling guilty for not updating the site for a while, and trying to think of something relevant to post, a fan named Jester Jay sends through a link to his blog, which contains this perfect encapsulation of Wonderlick’s aesthetic:
“I’m not sure how I ended up here, since it’s not what I was aiming for, but I wasn’t really aiming anyway.”
Aug 14th, 2009 by Tim
Those tracks we recorded for Dennis the Menace’s radio show are now available via this little widget.
Take a listen to “One of the Good Guys,” “I Am a Scientist,” and live versions of 2 from Topless. We’re investigating ways to make them available for download, but for now, stream away.
Aug 11th, 2009 by Tim
Up till now, the Double Encore E.P. was just a bonus we stuck in the envelopes of supporters who were particularly generous during the pre-order campaign. But starting today we’re letting it stand on its own — you can hear the whole thing for free in its entirety right here, or on the Music page, and you can buy it, if you’re so inclined.
Jul 31st, 2009 by Tim
The Press page has been updated with links to the last several weeks’ worth of features, interviews and Topless at the Arco Arena reviews (wheteher good or bad).
Also, a site called Coverville has a podcast featuring twelve different Clash covers. The first eleven are all songs from London Calling (by acts ranging from Social Distortion to the Honeydrippers), but they slipped in our take on “Janie Jones” as a bonus at the end.
Jul 27th, 2009 by Tim
That session/interview Wonderlick recorded a couple weeks ago will be broadcast on KUSF this coming Sunday, 8/2, at 4pm PST.
You can listen live here hear the archived show here.
Jul 20th, 2009 by Tim
Figured folks might like to see some of the videos we’ve gotten of people dancing to “This Song is a Commercial.” Here’s Monica, with a self-described “interpretative dance entry”:
These kids were a little too young to enter the contest officially, but their dad still wanted to share. There’s some pretty cool stunt photography 50 seconds in. Also, for some reason, hats:
Jul 12th, 2009 by Tim
So yesterday marked the semi-debut of Wonderlick as a live five-piece. I say semi, because we recorded a radio session yesterday, but it won’t be broadcast for a couple weeks. Once it is, we should be able to get all the tracks live on this site in a sharable player.
Many thanks to Dennis “The Menace” Scheyer for hooking the session up in the first place, and for doing a flattering amount of research about the band before sitting down to interview us — it’s always a pleasure to talk to people who get you.
Thanks as well to the band — Ken Flagg tinkled the ivories, Daniel Fabricant played a five string bass, and Chris Brague drummed. I’ll try to get some more photos of the day up later on. In the meantime, you should check out Ken’s MySpace page, as he’s a pretty amazing solo artist, too — I particularly recommend “Mountain Girl.”
We did 5 songs total: 3 from Topless (“Commercial,” “You First,” and “Fear of Chicago”), a cover of GBV’s “I Am a Scientist,” and a brand new one we literally wrote in the lounge while the engineers were getting drum sounds. That one’s called “One of the Good Guys,” and is the first of what may turn into an entire album about superheroes. Not the pretend kind in comic books, the real life ones who actually make themselves costumes and give themselves names and fight crime here in the U.S.A.
Jul 10th, 2009 by Tim
We’ll get all these arranged nicely in the Press section eventually, but here are two more Topless-related features from the interweb.
The first is an interview with an Iowa paper, written by my friend Kembrew McLeod. Kembrew’s a prankster as well a respected academic, so you can understand why we get along. We did the interview over email, and the actual transcript exceeded his word count, so maybe I’ll post the unedited version at some point.
The second is actually four separate entries at a pretty cool new site called songfacts.com. They asked us for the details behind four tracks from the new album, and we happily obliged.
Tomorrow we head to Different Fur studios in SF to record a few songs for broadcast on KUSF on Sunday. Feels good to play live with real live human beings. I’ll try to remember my camera and post some pix from the studio tomorrow.
Jul 8th, 2009 by Tim
Indie Paws has published my favorite review of the album so far — not because it’s positive, but because the writer doesn’t just assume the album’s supposed to be funny since it’s by some guys who used to be in Too Much Joy.
I mean, Topless is a 16-song concept album that comes complete with a 3,000 word essay about the intersection of art and commerce, yes? It’s not trying to be War and Peace, but it’s not a Three Stooges marathon, either.
So, thanks to Trey (that’s all the by-line says) for paying attention. I buy you a metaphorical beer, sir.
Jul 7th, 2009 by Tim
Today’s the street date for Topless at the Arco Arena. If you pre-ordered it through us, your package should have arrived by now (shoot admin@wonderlick.com a note if you haven’t received it).
The band will be doing another Wine Time with Wonderlick webcast this Saturday night, 7/11, at 6pm PST. Tune in, and bring your own bottle of wine — if you have a webcam, you can broadcast yourself as you watch (it’s actually kind of fun when everyone toasts one another). We’re contemplating starting an advice segment, so if you have any relationship or mother-in-law problems, send them in before Saturday, and Wonderlick will distribute sage advice to you during the chat.
We’ll also be performing a few songs and getting interviewed on KUSF on Sunday afternoon, sometime between 4 and 6pm PST. You can listen live here.
Here’s a nice little blurb about the album from philly.com.
Oh, that picture is a drawing of Johnny Cash I apparently made in 1970, when I was 5 years old. It fell out of an old scrapbook last night, and seemed worth sharing, since “The Possibilities” is based on a clip of Mr. Cash appearing on The Tonight Show in 1964.