Lowest donation was $5.00, highest was $500. We decided not to count the lowest and highest donations when calculating the average price for liner-note-inclusion purposes, which brought it down to a still-impressive $23.56.

Yet another press release from the label about the campaign with even more details after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2009

SUCCESSFUL FAN PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN COMPLETED FOR WONDERLICK

Fan Pays $500 For Forthcoming Album

The California-based group Wonderlick has just concluded an extremely successful fan pre-order campaign on their forthcoming sophomore full-length, “Topless At The Arco Arena.”  The band ran a month-long pre-order offer via their website which allowed fans to set their own price for the album, with an additional incentive offered to fans who paid median price or higher:  they are being thanked in the album package.  The final median price was $29.13.  The low price paid was $5, and the high price paid was $500.  Several fans paid over $100 for the disc.

Says band member Tim Quirk:  “I wasn’t too worried about people paying less than the CDs themselves cost, but I was completely unprepared for just how generous fans were. When the first $30 payment came in, that was pretty cool. Then they just kept getting higher — $45, $50, $100. I’m writing them all personal thank you notes, like my grandma taught me.”

“Topless at the Arco Arena” will be released on July 7, 2009 via Missing Piece/Rock Ridge Music.  According to Quirk, the record, “examines the intersection of art and commerce from people who have been on every side of it.”  “Topless At The Arco Arena” finds Quirk and bandmate Jay Blumenfield making music for music’s sake.  Both have very successful careers in other endeavors:  Tim is VP, Programming of Rhapsody and Jay is a TV producer and video director.  Inspired by Tim’s essay of the same name (originally published in the anthology “This is Pop! [Harvard University Press]), the album was recorded in Oakland and Los Angeles over the past few years. The essay will appear in its entirety as the album’s liner notes.

Wonderlick comprises half of the former members of Too Much Joy – a group known for witty alterna-pop which spawned the ‘90s hit “Crush Story” and sold several hundred thousand records.  After Too Much Joy disbanded and some time had passed, Wonderlick started as a messing-around-in-the-studio project in 2001 between Quirk and Blumenfield, who have been friends since their teen years.

After they successfully garnered a sizable amount of money in donations when offering a track at a time to former Too Much Joy fans for free download online, Wonderlick decided to release their self-titled album in 2002.  Since that time, they have continued to post new songs, some of which will make it onto the forthcoming album.

Wonderlick can be found online at:
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wonderlick/55734476585?ref=mf
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/tbquirk (Tim)
Website:  http://www.wonderlick.com

For more information, please contact:

Krista Mettler, Skye Media

publicity@rockridgemusic.com, 908-889-5029

Between now and mid-April, we’ll be letting anyone who pre-orders the album name his or her own price. This is a thank-you to the folks who’ve been supporting this project since it began, and who probably already have all the rough mixes already. It’s also a way to have your patronage immortalized, since we’re going to list anyone who winds up paying more than whatever the average price turns out to be in the liner notes.

Press release from the label after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2009

WONDERLICK EXPLORES THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND COMMERCE ON NEW RELEASE

New Release “Topless At The Arco Arena” Coming In July

The California-based group Wonderlick will be releasing their sophomore full-length, “Topless At The Arco Arena,” on July 7, 2009 via Missing Piece/Rock Ridge Music.  According to band member Tim Quirk, the record, “examines the intersection of art and commerce from people who have been on every side of it.”  “Topless At The Arco Arena” finds Quirk and bandmate Jay Blumenfield making music for music’s sake.  Both have very successful careers in other endeavors:  Tim is VP, Programming of Rhapsody and Jay is a TV producer and video director.  Inspired by Tim’s essay of the same name (originally published in the anthology “This is Pop! [Harvard University Press]), the album was recorded in Oakland and Los Angeles over the past few years. The essay will appear in its entirety as the album’s liner notes.

“Many of us were in bands,” Quirk wrote in the essay, “and before the dot-com explosion had spent most of our time writing, playing or watching music being made. But the tech boom had brought us out of the world of nightclubs and concert halls and into the land of cubicles, and our adventures there proved just as heady, about as brief, and equally packed with contradictions…. It’s possible to be complicit in your own exploitation, and it’s easy not to mind.”  It is that mindset that brought to bear the musical fruits of “Topless At The Arco Arena.”

Wonderlick comprises half of the former members of Too Much Joy – a group known for witty alterna-pop which spawned the ’90s hit “Crush Story” and sold several hundred thousand records.  After Too Much Joy disbanded and some time had passed, Wonderlick started as a messing-around-in-the-studio project in 2001 between Quirk and Blumenfield, who have been friends since their teen years.

After they successfully garnered a sizable amount of money in donations when offering a track at a time to former Too Much Joy fans for free download online, Wonderlick decided to release their self-titled album in 2002.  Since that time, they have continued to post new songs, some of which will make it onto the forthcoming album (see track listing below).

Continuing to redefine the relationship between fan and artist, the band began a pre-order offer on March 10th on www.sayhername.com, which will run until mid April and allows the fans to set their own price for the album.  As an additional incentive, fans who offer to pay median price or higher will be thanked in the album package.

TENTATIVE TRACK LISTING
1 When She Took Off Her Shirt
2 All Boys Want
3 We Run the World
4 The King of Bad Decisions
5 Fear of Chicago
6 You First
7 The Case Against Tattoos
8 This Song is a Commercial

9 Nobody Loves You Enough

10 Fuck Yeah!

11 Janie Jones

12 A Different Kind of Love

13 Your Majesty

14 The Possibilities

15 Devil Horns

Wonderlick can be found online at:
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wonderlick/55734476585?ref=mf
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/tbquirk (Tim)
Website:  http://www.wonderlick.com