Pitchfork: Wooden Wand Tours Again, Releases More Stuff

Wooden Wand Tours Again, Releases More Stuff

Dear Wooden Wand (or James Toth, or whatever),

I am concerned that you are recording yourself to death. Last year you released your first solo album, Harem of the Sundrum and the Witness Figg (congrats on it getting reissued this May on 5RC!), not to mention those two albums with the Vanishing Voice crew, Buck Dharma and The Flood. Then you guys did another album, Gipsy Freedom, that 5RC released in February. Maybe it's time to take it easy, go to Baja; have some nachos; watch the sunset.

Oh, wait. Apparently you're headed out on tour AGAIN tonight, for a two-week trek that includes several dates with John Vanderslice. Maybe dubbing your tour support crew the Enablers (featuring Satya Sai of Vanishing Voice and Keith Wood of Hush Arbors) will help. When will the chaos stop?

Dates:

04-14 Chicago, IL - South Union Arts
04-15 Grinnell, IA - Gardner Lounge, Grinnell College
04-16 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen
04-17 Columbus, OH - High Five *
04-18 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
04-20 Guelph, Ontario - The Bookshelf Bar *
04-21 Toronto, Ontario - El Mocambo *
04-22 Montreal, Quebec - Casa del Popolo *
04-23 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - Bard College
04-24 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs *
04-25 Bennington, VT - The Downcast/Bennington College *
04-26 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Side Chapel
04-27 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge *
04-28 Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw *

* with John Vanderslice

Oh look, you just HAD to go and start your own label too!! You have obviously named the label, Mad Monk, after yourself. While I do not doubt your good intentions of releasing vinyl-only, limited edition albums from artists like Curt Wiesman of Feathers, Inca Ore, and Astral Blessing (featuring Paul Lebreque from Sunburned Hand of the Man), you are absolutely mad.

What's this? A letter telling me that you are releasing ANOTHER album? Second Attention, you call it? You know, I'm happy that there is some time before the album is released on Kill Rock Stars this September 9, but trying to soothe my worries with this seemingly peaceful response about your second solo effort ain't gonna fly:

"The album is a song-oriented affair that mixes the classic 'California sound' with Wand's more urbane psych/folk material. Second Attention is the sound of friends playing together in a large room, recorded live to tape in San Francisco, CA, under the spell of John Phillips's solo work, Sir Douglas Quintet's Mendocino, Between the Buttons-era Stones, and Desire-era Dylan."

Hippie free-wheelin' good times, whatever. This tracklist doesn't help either; you've obviously entered the delirious phase of insomnia:

01 Crucifixion Pt. II
02 Portrait in the Clouds
03 Rolling One Sun Blues
04 Sweet Xiao Li
05 Hot Death
06 Mother Midnight
07 The Bleeder
08 Madonna
09 Dead Sue
10 Los Angeles Manna

You've got a lotta spunk; corraled correctly, all this could lead to global domination. But not unless you take a break, dude.

With open arms,
Info-overloaded reporter

P.S. I heard through the grapevine/your publicist that you recorded an EP called Hours of the Horizon for Three Lobed Recordings's subscription series Modern Containment. According to TLR, throughout 2006 and 2007 subscribers will receive CD EPs from each of the other participating artists, including Bardo Pond, Hush Arbors, Kinski, Mirror/Dash (Thurston and Kim from Sonic Youth), Sun City Girls, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Matt Valetine & Erika Elder, and then you and another new support crew, the Omen Bones Band. Even if those EPs will feature new and exclusive material from all those awesome artists, it don't change the fact that you need to go take a nap.

* Pitchfork Review: Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice: Gipsy Freedom
* Pitchfork Review: Wooden Wand: Harem of the Sundrum and the Witness Figg