[Moshe]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/41172

Wooden Wand Taps Sonic Youth for Ecstatic Peace LP
Thurston Moore signs, Lee Ranaldo strums/produces, Steve Shelley drums

Have the Sky High Band stay up there in the clouds and tell the Vanishing Voice to vamoose-- James Jackson Toth's next LP might as well bear the name Wooden Wand and the Sonic Youth Dudes.

The prolific folkie-- whose Second Attention arrived last fall via Kill Rock Stars-- has signed to Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace imprint, through which he'll continue releasing records on an insane bi-yearly clip with the May 15 unveiling of James and the Quiet.

The Sonic Youth ties don't end with Moore, however. Youth axe-man Lee Ranaldo produced and played some guitar and piano on James and the Giant Pea-- er, James and the Quiet, while Sonic drummer Steve Shelley provided, yes, drum-related noises.

Other Quiet contributors include vocalist/co-arranger Jessica Toth, Meneguar members Jarvis Taveniere (also of Vanishing Voice) and Jeremy Earl, and Vanishing Voice member DM Seidel. According to the press release, Toth considers James and the Quiet his third proper release, although he admits, like us, to having lost count of Wooden Wand's pre-proper releases.

Not coincidentally, as you know, Wooden Wand opens a handful of shows on Sonic Youth's February tour, kicking off tonight in lovesick Northampton, Massachusetts.

James and the Quiet:

01 The Pushers
02 In a Bucket
03 Spitting at the Cameras
04 Delia
05 We Must Also Love the Thieves
06 The Invisible Children
07 Blood
08 Blessed Damnation
09 Future Dream
10 James and the Quiet
11 Wired to the Sky

Wooden Wand and the tour dates:

02-14 Northampton, MA - Academy of Music *
02-15 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
02-16 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
02-17 Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel *
02-18 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
03-01 Lexington, KY - University of Kentucky
03-05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #

* with Sonic Youth
# with Bright Eyes

[greenlight]

hmmm, interesting.

[Moshe]

A track from the new album is here:

http://www.myspace.com/woodenwand

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. Various versions of songs were recorded and pored over, discussions grew passionate, feelings were hurt. We think you will agree the ends justify any meanness that anyone might have endured.

Co-arranger and vocalist Jessica Toth may be the record's secret weapon. While perhaps best known for her role as lead vocalist and occasional guitarist in Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, on James & The Quiet she emerges as the perfect foil to Toth's inimitable artistic voice. Together with Ranaldo, Jessica wrote and fine-tuned most of the album's exquisite harmony vocals and piano lines while Toth himself sat in the studio lounge drinking beer and reading old issues of Tape Op.

Longtime fans will note that James & the Quiet is markedly darker that Toth's last album Second Attention, and features many songs that have become live staples in the Wooden Wand oeuvre over the past year. It is also significant in that it will likely be the last album under the Wooden Wand moniker (future releases will be released under Toth's Christian name) and as such, simultaneously closes one chapter and introduces another.

Hoping to transcend genre tags, Toth, with more than a little help from his friends, has crafted a consistent and creative batch of songs that rewards repeat listens and continues to showcase Toth's talent as a songwriter's songwriter.

[Dead-Air]

The stuff with the Vanishing Voice was awesome. Together with an SY-based backing band, should be even more remarkable.

[Moshe]

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. Various versions of songs were recorded and pored over, discussions grew passionate, feelings were hurt. We think you will agree the ends justify any meanness that anyone might have endured.

Co-arranger and vocalist Jessica Toth may be the record's secret weapon. While perhaps best known for her role as lead vocalist and occasional guitarist in Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, on James & The Quiet she emerges as the perfect foil to Toth's inimitable artistic voice. Together with Ranaldo, Jessica wrote and fine-tuned most of the album's exquisite harmony vocals and piano lines while Toth himself sat in the studio lounge drinking beer and reading old issues of Tape Op.

Longtime fans will note that James & the Quiet is markedly darker that Toth's last album Second Attention, and features many songs that have become live staples in the Wooden Wand oeuvre over the past year. It is also significant in that it will likely be the last album under the Wooden Wand moniker (future releases will be released under Toth's Christian name) and as such, simultaneously closes one chapter and introduces another.

Hoping to transcend genre tags, Toth, with more than a little help from his friends, has crafted a consistent and creative batch of songs that rewards repeat listens and continues to showcase Toth's talent as a songwriter's songwriter.

[Moshe]

artwork:

 

[sonicl]

Release date: 12 June.

I'm just adding that because it took me ages to find (couldn't see the wood for the trees) and I thought I'd save you good people the trouble.

[Georgekrz]

i like that song

[Moshe]

Click here for more information and a full stream

[val-holla-ing]

we just got this in at the station, but i haven't given it a listen yet.

[Moshe]

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Wooden-Wand,3424

Wooden Wand
James & The Quiet [Ecstatic Peace; 2007]

4.5/5


Styles: folk rock, classic rock, free-folk
Others: Six Organs of Admittance, Tony Joe White, Merle Haggard, Feathers



James Toth had a vision — one so unusual and clever he brought it forth to Andrew Kesin and Thurston Moore of Ecstatic Peace only to be met with astonished looks and confounded expressions. As he drove road upon endless road, Toth turned to the familiar country outlaws of Haggard, Nelson, and Kristoppherson. Finding solace in a forgotten sound — and moreso a forgotten ethic — he brought forth his innermost twang, his deepest southern roots, and set forth to create an album planted firmly in the soil. Seeds begot roots; roots begot buds; buds begot plants; plants begot flora. Flora blossomed into James & The Quiet.
Those long-forgotten ethics of country — truth, spirituality, and personal sacrifice — are rife throughout James & The Quiet, James Toth’s most grounded and earnest release to date. The album is rich with mythology of godly and humanly proportions. Toth has laid a delicate hand upon his oft-psychedelic, always freakish sound. Toth takes a long, hard look at his surroundings, much like the godfathers of outlaw in their prime. Songs brimming with this much observation and introspection don’t just fall from the sky. Though Toth was clearly influenced by digging through truck stop discount bins, there’s also an ever-present feeling that these tracks had been lying low within Toth for quite some time, just waiting for the appropriate moment to rise to the surface. Considering that James & The Quiet is rumored to be Wooden Wand’s swansong (though not that of the man behind the name), this batch of bard speak serves as a fitting farewell to an era that’s been ready to move on for a while.
Calling the album a modern interpretation of classic country may be a stretch, as it leans on Toth’s signature rock tweaks and aloof storytelling, but I can’t help but think of Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger with each passing listen. The production style of James & The Quiet mimics the sparse aesthetic of Nelson’s landmark album, and although Toth doesn’t dare tackle an album’s worth of dialogue, his use of interesting and unusual storytelling techniques lend themselves to the outlaw movement. “Invisible Children” is a delicate interpretation of old country ethos (spirituality, gunplay, and salvation) that blends well with Toth’s take on the sound he’s channeling throughout the album. The death march of “We Must Also Love the Thieves” is as low-down and remorseful as folk and country come. The deconstructed “Spitting at the Camera” is fireside folk at its finest. Jessica Toth’s backing vocals are haunting throughout the traditional melody and transform “Spitting at the Camera” into a fragile hymnal.
It’s easy to snicker at the idea of Wooden Wand’s interpretation of classic country, and although songs such as “The Pushers” and “Future Dream” are more Dylan and Young than Haggard and Waylon, they fit snuggly within the themes of James & The Quiet. There are life lessons and observations to be learned from Toth’s parting words as Wooden Wand — a cautionary tale that isn’t brimming with lost dogs, train-hopping, and lost loves. Toth chooses to go the forgotten route, and for that, we all get one more sweet smell of country air before the petals fall off and winter’s cold air claims the old country sound for itself once more.
1. The Pushers 2. In a Bucket 3. Spitting at the Camera 4. Delia 5. We Must Also Love the Thieves 6. Invisible Children 7. Blood 8. Blessed Damnation 9. Future Dream 10. James & the Quiet 11. Wired to the Sky

[Moshe]

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3664


This is James Toth’s coming out party. His quinceañera. And for it, he has prepared a toast befitting a Tennessee debutante:

• I read and approved the press release written by my good friends at Fanatic Promotion and wrote the update on the Myspace page myself, so I really can’t understand why some people still fail to see the difference between WWVV [his band, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice] and what I do as a solo artist. Either certain people aren’t listening, or they simply don’t give a shit. Regrettably, I’m guessing it is the latter.

On this charge, Tosh is dead-on. It’s the latter. And, after listening to the monumentally portentous James and the Quiet, it’s hard to understand how anyone could give a shit. Whether or not that’s regrettable is another matter. Toth, shedding the band for a host of studio collaborators — most notably Lee Ranaldo, who also produced the record — has taken so-called new folk’s delusions of historical import (if only by ancestry) and cultural relevance (if only by accident) to an unprecedented level in the pursuit of his ‘vision.’

But wait, lest you be taken in by my own gripes — Toth has preempted this moment in the same manifesto, broadcast via Myspace and a network of message boards populated by veteran grousers and boosters:

• I sincerely hope this missive doesn’t do more harm than good, as it often appears that cynical journalists tend to ‘look for holes’ in such appeals. I imagine that every band that is fortunate enough to be written about anywhere has many of these same gripes, but choose not to rock the boat, as it were. But I don’t really give a shit about that. I guess when it comes right down to it, I’d rather be fact-checked (and accurately portrayed) than liked by total strangers.

Call me doubly cynical, but if I want holes — or, as the case may be, one giant gaping hole of a certain variety — I’ll spend another 40 minutes with James and the Quiet.

To be done with the obligatory description of style, form and biography: Toth plays the namesake in an ensemble called Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, which has put out a number of records ranging from decent to respectable in the last few years. While those records waver between noise, dirge and folk, on occasion pushing an envelope or two, the songs on James are characterized by rote stylistic gestures and faux-poetics in the mold of English psychedelic folk singers like Simon Finn, visionary lyricists such as William Blake, and whichever other dealers in apocalyptic metaphysical imagery Toth has dug through over the years.

From the casually elevated “We Must Also Love the Thieves” (“We most also love the liars / because truth can be found in this…We must turn the other cheek / and share what we have to eat” — seriously) to the sneering Biblical rants of the title track (“James and the quiet and the angels above” being the mantra), Toth’s lyrics veer dangerously toward doomsaying, soothsaying and general bullshitting. The songs appear as a herd of slowly passing cows, each one almost indistinguishable from the next, heavy beasts mooing stupidly as they leave the road to the slaughterhouse covered with feces. They inevitably contain a basic chord progression strummed in an unremarkable manner.

This feels a lot like the apotheosis of a genre — let’s call it ahistorical history music. In other words, a form mimicked or appropriated, denied the specific circumstances that originally granted it some enduring value; a fetishized version of history masquerading as artistic expression. The self-aggrandizing jig the young white man dances on the grave of Mississippi John Hurt.

The effect of this context-specific music taken far outside of its rightful context is maddening at worst, tiresome at best. I’m reminded of George W.S. Trow’s Within the Context of No Context, which so articulately (if nostalgically) lamented our culture’s increasing loss of historical mooring and the resultant infantilization of society. To wantonly chew at the weeds of history, regurgitating wherever one sees fit and calling the spittle one’s own art, is to deny that history its rightful place, to revert to the mindset of a child. But beyond that observation it’s hard to find a reason to give a shit. Back to fact-checking.

By Alexander Provan

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by Moshe

By Alexander Provan

ya think he don't like it? Sheesh, its impossible to tell this piece is so overwritten. One thing Provan don't see is that Toth has been playing this music for over a decade, and it wasn't until a few years ago when suddenly devendra and joanna made it safe and suddenly New Folk was everywhere...this is the music he would play regardless of anyone's interest.

[Moshe]

http://mog.com/pinkertonwasbetter/blog_post/101564

Wooden Wand “James and the Quiet”
Roxy S.
7 out of 10
If you’re one of few and far between who can safely say that you are into indie without a pair ray-ban wayfarers on then “James and the Quiet” by Wooden Wand may be the album for you. This here is indie without the fuss; you won’t see it on Mark “the Cobra-Snake’s” top ten list, and you won’t be able to nod your head to it at any hip 18+ clubs. “James and the Quiet” is innovative, but perhaps too weird to catch on. That may be the beauty of this album; it’s like Bob dylan and Sonic youth unexpectedly ran into each other and decided to collaborate in a basement in the woods and leave Jack White out of it. It’s dark, narrative, experimental folk-rock, and I like it….almost as much as those cool clubs. Almost.
On the band’s official site bio, I read the words “molester,” “Czech-gymnast,” and “urination.” So here is what I was able to scrape up on them from other sources: James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand, originally fronted the “acid-folk” group Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voices. The quintet met at the State Univeristy of New York College at Purchase and comprised of Heidi Diehl, Steven Jarvis Taveniere, Jessica Toth, and G. Lucas Crane. Their career spanned over seven albums, including The Flood, Xiao, and Buck Dharma, six+ labels, and about twenty other releases and compilations. From what I understand, James Toth went solo keeping the moniker Wooden Wand a few years ago and released “Harem of the Sundrum and the Witness Figg” and 2006’s “Second Attention” with the Sky High Band.
The complicated back story acts as a sort of preface to deep, transcendent lyrics that rant about everything from vanity to nihilism. “James and the Quiet” opens with “The Pushers” complete with a growling guitar, kicking drums, and incendiary lyrics about societal demands. Streaks of irony run through “We Must Also Love the Thieves”, and “In a Bucket” which boasts my favorite line “…sometimes getting dressed is the most important meal of the day…”. The album waivers between harder, rougher tracks, and softer Dylan-esque songs such as “Spitting at the Camera” and “Blessed Damnation”. I’m taken back to the country-side, red barns and all, with “Invisible Children” featuring Toth’s wife Jessica on backing vocals. Her voice smoothes over Toth’s rough edges and provides some much needed femininity throughout the album. “Delia” harkens back to Sonic Youth’s influence which is completely warranted seeing as how Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley are featured on guitar and drums along with Jarvis Taveniere, DM Seidel, and Jeremy Earl on drums, piano, organ, and bass. It doesn’t hurt either that Ecstatic Peace label head is Mr. Thurston Moore himself.

[Moshe]

http://www.entertainmentwise.com/review?id=35836

4/5 stars

 

Most artists’ paymasters break into a panicky sweat whenever their charges unveil their plans for a new, experimental direction. It's safe to assume Wooden Wand's label were more than a bit miffed when James Toth - the psych-folk practioner behind the wizardly pseudonym - revealed his intentions to go straight for this, his third solo release after umpteenth releases of lysergic freakouts in the ranks of US underground overlords Vanishing Voice. All of which points at what an extraordinarily talented oddball Toth is, and why his decision to dodge his more far-out tendencies for the duration of 'James And The Quiet' initially feels like an uneasy fit seemingly designed to illustrate the key lyrics of breezy folk strummathon 'Spitting At The Cameras': "when will you ever find comfort when you forfeit who you are."
Put simply, the prospect of encountering a bunch of sober tunes delivered straight on the follow-up to the psychedelically frazzled moping of 'Harem Of The Sundrum' (2005) and the bizarre brilliance of last year's vintage West Coast vibes exhuming 'Second Attention', not the mention the wah-wah pedal-bothering cosmic skronk Toth's musicianly past is littered with, seems worryingly tame and predictable, two adjectives not previously linked to Toth's output. Worse still, the grin-inducing, gloriously untidy grooves of the Sky High Band have been shelved in favour of the comparatively dry, uncluttered sound of a one-off studio outfit. No one with fully functioning ears would suggest the likes of Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo (who also produces) and Steve Shelley and various Vanishing Voice veterans who perform the instrumental duties here are anonymous hacks-for-hire, but the results are at first reminiscent of Neil Young swapping the soulful sloppiness of Crazy Horse for the steadier hands of professional musos - less prone to wrong turns, sure, but also somewhat lacking in instantly recognisable charm.
But Toth didn't become one of leftfield Americana's brightest promises by churning out duds. Listen closer and 'James and The Quiet' quickly proves as inescapably catchy as the bucket of tar populated by the dizzy honey bees in the chorus of 'In The Bucket'. The arrangements which at first seem threadbare and clinical release more of their captivating delights with each listen, with co-arranger Jessica Toth's rich tones providing the perfect vocal foil to Toth's singular pipes, half young Dylan's drawl and half Devendra Banhart warble. It's debatable whether Toth could ever cook up thoroughly conventional navel-gazing singer-songwriter fare, such is his natural pull towards the offbeat and the skewered.
Although the proceedings here are Toth's most direct and approachable yet, the warped wordplay and unsettling visions keep mainstream-friendly cosiness at bay, resulting in gems ala 'Invisible Children', which counters the melody's expansive, 'Exile on Main Street' without the class A's country-soul warmth with crackpot couplets throbbing with surreal strangeness (sample lyric: "the world's strongest man was a shaman of neat country bread"). Elsewhere, the gnarly stomp of 'The Pushers' turns a list of negatives railing against "poison people" into a rousing rallying cry, whilst 'Delia' and 'Blood' balance between serene harmony and ominous disquiet with potent results.
The clumsy 'Blessed Damnation' (less half-written than barely started), the plodding 'We Must Also Love The Thieves' and 'Future Dream's half-baked go at updating the playful verbal bravado of 'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream' draw blanks, but the suitably celestial closing hymn 'Wired To The Sky' ends the album on a heavenly high note.