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.