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Wooden Wand

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When James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand, told his band his plans for his new album, they all looked at him like he was crazy. Likewise, when Toth announced these peculiar ambitions to Ecstatic Peace label head Thurston Moore and label manager Andrew Kesin, they gave Toth a similar look - an unmistakable mix of disbelief, skepticism and fear.

“I want it to be an un-weird record,” was Toth’s plan. The road-weary Toth been spending a lot of time with old Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings records, and wanted to transcend the ‘psychedelic’ connotations he’s been pegged with since his days fronting Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice. He wanted to do what Elvis Costello did on Imperial Bedroom or Leonard Cohen did on I’m Your Man - he wanted to not give the people what they wanted, necessarily, but instead endeavor to follow his muse and create something altogether different.

Sure, everyone was baffled by this proclamation. How could Toth - who is to a wah-wah pedal what George Bush is to bad foreign policy - tone it down enough to make a record without any of the experimental leanings and idiosyncratic eccentricities of his previous work?

Well, he didn’t, exactly, but he tried damn hard. It’s just that when you get someone as brilliant as Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo to produce and co-arrange a record, it gets very hard to pass up the opportunity to see a song through to its logical end and explore every possibility. With the help of Jarvis Taveniere (Vanishing Voice, Meneguar), DM Seidel (Vanishing Voice), Jeremy Earl (Woods, Meneguar), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and Ranaldo himself (who sings and plays guitar and piano on the album) Toth’s folk songs quickly became densely layered and meticulously arranged, and, soon enough, an album began to take shape.

Tagged as:

folk, alt-country, freak folk, new weird america, psychedelic
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Top Tracks

1	In A Bucket full track	19
2	Spitting At The Cameras full track	16
3	Delia full track	13
3	The Pushers full track	13
5	The Invisible Children full track	12
5	Blood full track	12
7	Agent of Destruction full track	11
8	Shrinking Violet In A Cowboy Band full track	9
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9	I Wouldn't Do That full track	7
9	We Must Also Love The Thieves full track	7
9	Blessed Damnation full track	7
13	bones for doctor swah	6
13	Future Dream full track	6
13	James & The Quiet full track	6

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Degarmo wrote:
May 2009

i dunno if i like the new album or not

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fat_fleshy_fingers wrote:
May 2009

bring back vanishing voice

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Degarmo wrote:
April 2009

looking forward to listen to new album..

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SolemnGong wrote:
April 2009

It's amazing how one man can make so many solid albums.

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EdLeMonde wrote:
February 2009

New album, "Born Bad" coming out soon. Street date March 30th. Limited-run, vinyl-only, with hand-screened covers available for pre-order at www.PeopleInAPositionToKnow.com

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Degarmo wrote:
August 2008

someone please edit the bio

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_duif wrote:
November 2007

thanks joshuaa23! War star days is track 6 though, not 7. anyone know track 8?

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emergingsynergy wrote:
November 2007

I am grateful.

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joshuaa23 wrote:
October 2007

5. Spitting At The Camera 7. War Star Days

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_duif wrote:
September 2007

From The Road vol. 4: (1) Vengeance, (2) I am a pilgrim, (3) We must also love the thieves, (4) Dog paddling home to live with my lord [?], (5) ?, (6) ?, (7) Madonna, (8) ?, (9) Babylon the great. please complete this list!

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shoutfromthebow wrote:
July 2007

does anyone have the track listing to any of the from the road series?

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groundcontrolma wrote:
July 2007

check out our review of James and the Quiet: http://www.groundcontrolmag.com/detail/3/421/

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mlincoln wrote:
June 2007

more from the mountain 7 is kickass

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sifelltneytandi wrote:
May 2007

James & The Quiet is my favorite album so far this year...possibly second to Of Montreal (which I actually heard in late '06, but...still).

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TristanG wrote:
April 2007

looking forward to picking up james and the quiet. really good. check out the new photo I put up as well!

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ascensionday wrote:
April 2007

for the shame, shaaame, shaaame of love, James & the Quiet and the angels above

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I'm the Great wrote:
April 2007

'James & the Quiet' is gold.

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cataporah wrote:
April 2007

james & the quiet is so good

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ascensionday wrote:
April 2007

That press release crap in the artist bio is a bunch of baloney. Second Attention was just as un-weird as this one. Both brilliant.

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Quercusfalcata wrote:
March 2007

yr awesome bb

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30 Nov 2008 | from woodenwand.net
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Recent Activity

seedsomary, skywinnow and sparkswillfly99 added Wooden Wand to their libraries. Friday evening
Pol_Smith tagged Wooden Wand with ‘folk’. 11 days ago
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