We know, there’s sorta plenty already… but you can never have too many creative spaces, right? From The L : Some are tucked away in seldom seen corners of the city, others are in plain view, a few are two-faced tricksters operating as, say, tortilla factories by day, music clubs by night. Point is, we live in a concrete jungle of structures and spaces waiting to be turned into DIY venues by the wave of a promoter-godfairy’s wand. Lest we forget, Issue Project Room was once housed in a silo; Damon Dash’s office basement hosted one of Sleigh ...

Wooden Wand’s James Jackson Toth celebrates the gritty eccentricity of The Baptist Generals’ 2003 Sup Pop LP.

Auch wenn’s keiner hören will, aber die verschwurbelte Weirdness James Jackson Toth alias Wooden Wand in der Neo-Folk-Szene ist ein bisschen übertrieben. Auf seinem neuen Werk “Briarwood” aber bricht dieser leicht meschugge Singer/Songwriter mit der folkloristischen Vergangenheit. Dieses Album klingt klasse produziert und songorientiert wie noch nie. Und es ist rockig! Klare und ausformulierte Gedanken [...]

Polica's in-studio performance featuring an interview with the Current's Mark Wheat recently hit NPR, not MPR, but the national one. With an impressive number of camera angles, we get a look at "Wand

"Tear it apart" is the latest video from Danish neofolk artist Of the Wand and the Moon. If you've never seen the original scene the visuals are from, I suggest that you check it out.

New 2012 live dates for Danish neofolk artist Of the Wand and the Moon: 03/17 - Café la Palma, Madrid (ESP) 04/29 - The Villa Festival, Magione (ITA) 08/18 - Dark Bombastic Evening 4, Alba Lulia Fortress (RO)

Woodsist got all the right jams. Scope this pre-Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice material from James Jackson Toth’s Golden Calves project. 1996 was a hot year for the acoustic man and song , but WW & VV (if I may abbreviate) hit that sentimental noise scene like, like, like a boss . Err, bosses. Now Toth all country and briarwood , which is equally as hot and not a surprise. Anyway, the Golden Calves collection will be reissued in limited release on Woodsist, so get your po-mo-style prologue listening on ! • Golden Calves: http://www.myspace.com/890767 • Woodsist: http://www.woodsist.com

Side one demonstrates some masterful guitar playing, deft, descriptivewith plenty of colour between frets, spurring off on otherworldlytwilights… Halfway through, this captivating narrative takes up a moreoccultist tone with creeping circles prowling a low lit amplitude…Gliding on some lovely glassy eyed synthetics, the guitar graduallyletting the optimism in, the tone warming…. then finally drifting outon doubled layers, the crystallised strings caught in the falling ofleaves. In complete contrast, side two is a aquatic-lined burbling ofsubmerged sounds … A sweeping bubble wand of multicoloured oceanics.A humming flange of dolphin rasp providing the bassline, as keystrokesgive out the definition in 'close ...

On his third solo album away from the meadow of Skygreeen, Donovan Quinn drops the 13th Month moniker and heads out again just under his own name. Quinn has truly found his voice this time around, dusty tongued and besieged by the double edges of bittersweet melancholy and sun dappled euphoria that's always drawn the Leopards close to our hearts. Honky Tonk Medusa shares the summoner’s tale troubadour vibrations that former stagemate James Jackson Toth has employed under the many folds of his Wooden Wand habit proving Quinn to be quite the songwriter in his own right. There ...

There was a spell on The Daily Choice where anything by Wooden Wand was tossed in to the column just by the sole fact that James Jackson Toth had placed his Midas-like hands upon it. The love never ceased for J.J. Toth I just found new things to post but the fact that Woodsist is [...]

This Seattle trio is creating dark, sinister, trembling earth ballads that have echoes of country evenings and haunted memories. Almost reminiscent of the earliest, best freak folk sounds of bands like Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, they would sound right at home on an Arthur comp in 2004 or around a Southwestern campfire in 1921. The shaker is everpresent, accompanying frontman Michael Sauder's low grumbles and moans and a low bass hum, with less frequent bursts of larger percussion...

4 janvier - ** Cry bird + Neon Bird @ International ** 6 janvier - Magnetix + Aladdin @ Maroquinerie 12 janvier - ** Her Magic Wand @ International ** 13 janvier - Breton @ La Machine 14 janvier - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ Maroquinerie 15 janvier - ** Grimm + Emmanuel & The Fear @ International ** 18 janvier - Laura Gibson + Dear Reader @ .FMR 19 janvier - Delano Orchestra @ Fleche d'or  20 janvier - Kim Novak @ Fleche d'or The Notwist @ Café de la danse  ** Shiko Shiko + Kinda Weird Fishes @ International ** Alice Lewis + Minors + Kid With No Eyes @ Nouveau Casino 21 janvier - Kit + Flying Turns + Wall of Death @ Nouveau Casino Festival Mo'Fo @ Mains d'Oeuvres  27 janvier ...

When Wooden Wand was working* on raising money for the now-released Briarwood, one of the things he offered to fans is that he’d record a cover song of your choosing. One dedicated fan donated to the cause and asked him to cover Pink Floyd’s “Echoes.” Not the choice my mind would first go to, but [...]

Wooden Wand’s James Jackson Toth has traversed some rough country—or at least the characters in his songs have—and there’s a jagged edge around his songs that belie the often tender lyrics at the heart of them.  The remnants of those journeys are sprinkled throughout the new album Briarwood with the “patches on my jacket and [...]

A fascinating read, from Justin Davidson and New York Magazine : I’m standing on a podium, with an enameled wand cocked between my fingers and sweat dampening the small of my back. Ranks of young musicians eye me skeptically. They know I don’t belong here, but they’re waiting for me to pretend I do. I raise my arm in the oppressive silence and let it drop. Miraculously, Mozart’s overture to Don Giovanni explodes in front of me, ragged but recognizable, violently thrilling. This feels like an anxiety dream, but it’s actually an attempt to answer a ...