New Self Titled Album Ships Aug 30th. Pre-Order Now!

In case you missed it. Our new self titled album hits the streets August 30th. Our first single 'Forever and Ever' is out now and you can listen to it below. You can download it by signing up for our email list too. You can pre-order, digital, CD and vinyl copies of the album here. Kickstarter backers' packages ship by Aug 1st.

 

Forever and Ever (new!) by the WANDAS

SXSW Music Festival - 2011 - Recap (LONG!)

Where do I begin? I think the most logical place is to start at South By Southwest 2010, last year. We had just come off of almost a full year of touring  the U.S. on New Wave Blues. We had played the songs inside and out at nearly 200 shows and came into SXSW expecting nothing except that we could play our set blindfolded and hanging upside down at this point. SXSW 2010 was a huge success for us. Having the opportunity to perform for industry pros across the world and reuniting with friends we'd made around the country touring; you couldn't ask for a better time. Oh yeah, the free beer wasn't too shabby either.

Fast forward 1 full year later. We had spent the last 12 months writing & recording our new album. The timeline was so tight that we actually picked up our masters of the new album from our producer Patrick Krief in Austin,TX because he was in town with his band The Dears

Hello Austin! Waller St and 4th St. We're your new RV neighbors for 8 days

With a brand new arsenal of songs never performed live yet, we were back in Austin with the exact opposite situation we had last year. We knew everything to expect in terms of

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Canadian Music Week (CMW) 2011 Recap

We were thrilled to be invited to perform at CMW in Toronto Ontario this year. Canadian Music Week takes place the week leading up to SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX. It's a good way to catch up and coming acts from around the world, along with some legendary music figures mixed in.

We figured that since we'd be heading to 80 degree weather in  Austin, TX for a week, that we might as well head to Canada just to get in a little more cold weather; us New Englanders are gluttons for punishment.

We were in Toronto for about 3 days and got to perform at a famous Toronto venue called Cherry Cola's Rock N' Rolla Cabaret. The venue is laid out in a dark red velvet atmosphere and a cozy stage that has held many surprise shows by bigger acts like Them Crooked Vultures and The Eagles of Death Metal. 

Cherry Cola's Rock N' Rolla Cabaret: Toronto, Ontario

The combination of the smaller venue mixed with the CMW energy kept a line filled with music lovers and industry pros, out the door the whole night.

After being cooped up in the RV for a couple days of straight rain (yes our RV leaks when it rains) it was great to take the stage and play to an eager crowd and some old friends from the Toronto based band The Danger Bees.

Then it was off to Texas. Oh and we didn't have any trouble crossing the border either. I think it was a good omen 

Cheers,

Ross

theWANDAS nominated for best emerging artist of 2010 by Deli Magazine

I was wondering if 2010 could have gone any better. Well it's 2011 and we're still getting recognized for 2010; pretty cool. 

We're honored to be nominated by Deli Magazine as best emerging artist in New England. The nomination process is done by a panel of industry people and the winner is decided by popular vote. 

Thanks for a great 2010. We're really excited for 2011!

Cheers,

Ross

Our Album is Tracked!

When we left Boston to head to Montreal we didn't have much on our mind other than to finish our album in the window we had the studio rented. There are so many unknowns when it comes to making an album that it can become very daunting if you start thinking about everything that could go wrong. You're always better off focusing on the music and knocking things off the list to do in a methodical fashion. Just keep moving and don't look back; and hopefully when you've got to the end of list you've completed everything to your satisfaction and with enough time to spare. Now that we're done, I can say without a doubt that we've hit both of those benchmarks. The whole process exceeded our expectations. 

Knocking things off the list - Producer Patrick Krief, Mix Art Studios Montreal, Quebec

The six months+ of preproduction with 40 hours a week spent in our practice space definitely paid off. This is the first recording process I've ever been apart of that has run ahead of schedule. Because we were tracking the drums, guitar, bass and vocals live, we had the potential to cruise through the recording session. We also had the potential to have a disastrous time. If something isn't feeling right with one of the parts, the whole band has to wait and before you know it you've gone days without anything to show for it. Luckily our experience was the former and we tore through the songs. From the first time we hit the record button, our entire album (11 songs) was tracked in 6 days.

The ending couldn't have gone any better. After we had completed everything, Chris from Stars and Liam from The Stills were nice enough to come by and play some horns on a couple of the songs. Liam played a killer Wurlitzer solo on one of the tracks too.

So here we are now. Six months of work sitting on hard drive the size of a pack of guitar stings (backed-up of course). The next step is the mixing and mastering process. More to come on that!

Cheers,

Ross

Working Hard in Montreal - A video tour of Mix Art Studios

Hello WANDA-NATION,

Things are going great up here in Montreal. We're ahead of schedule in the recording process and are absolutely thrilled with how everything is sounding.

We're also pleased that our double fake out of mother nature couldn't have went any better. While we headed north to Montreal, (the only place colder than Boston in the winter) Boston was getting slammed with a Blizzard. I guarantee you if we recorded in Miami, they would have had snow on Christmas.

Here is a little video tour of Mix Art Studios, where we are tracking the album. My apologies if some of the video is a little dark and hard to see. The studio has a lighting vibe designed to inspire sweet sweet music; not necessarily great for filming. However, you should be able to get the gist.

Can't wait to share the music with everyone!

Cheers,
Ross


Happy Christmas From Montreal

Hello All,

What a great Christmas morning. We all awoke to find all the musical gear we ever wanted. Brent had wall of amps ranging from Vox to Orange. I had the best Ampeg setup in the world. Will had more snare drums then he knew what to do with them and Keith had one microphone alone worth twice as much as his car. This year theWANDAS are celebrating Christmas at Mix Art studios in Montreal, Quebec. 

It's a bit different that our traditional Christmas festivities but it is still festive nonetheless. One of the neighbors to the studio brought us over some home made wine and one of Patrick's friends hand delivered some egg nog for a Christmas Toast.

(L-R) Recording Engineer Joe Saliba, theWANDAS, Producer Patrick Krief. Christmas 2010 Egg Nog Toast. Mix Art Studios. Montreal Quebec.The recording process is going very well. I must say the months

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Off to the races. Let the recording begin!

A lot of people say that growing as band is a marathon not a sprint. I prefer to think of it like a series of impromptu sprints with no defined beginning or end. Sometimes you just have to run like crazy and hope that your body doesn't give out before the race ends. We're at one of those sprints right now.

Recording Engineer Joe Saliba setting up Will's Drums at Mixart Studios. Montreal Quebec

We departed early tuesday morning to the only place colder than Boston, MA right now; Montreal Canada. our target departure time was 8am. We hit the road by 11am; not bad for musicians. This was actually pretty good considering Will was stuck in traffic for an extra hour and a half and Joe (our engineer we brought with us to Canada) was passed out asleep in a sound proof room at another studio he works at in Boston with no cell phone on him. After banging on the locked door for about an hour trying different knocking techniques, we

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TimeOut Boston Selects theWANDAS as Best Live Act of 2010

We're pleased to announce that TimeOut Boston selected theWANDAS as Best Live Act of 2010. Here is what they had to say below.

The Wandas spent the better part of 2010 touring the bejesus out of their third album, New Wave Blues. In the process, they caused a few bloggers’ jaws to hit the floor at South by Southwest and squashed the competition at WBRU’s Rock Hunt battle of the bands. The retro rock charms found on New Wave Blues should mollify anyone put off by the fact that none of these four dudes are actually named Wanda. The catchy and heartfelt “Thank You Note” exemplifies what a hit single should be, “Lose You” gushes lovelorn anguish, and “Please Come Home” proves that sounding like Neil Diamond isn’t necessarily something to be ashamed of. Still, it’s the Wandas stage show–which manages to be at once tight and bombastic–that has them topping our lists.- Barry Thompson - TimeOut Magazine.

You can read more about their picks at TimeOut Boston.

Kickstarter Campaign Complete, nearly $12,000 raised towards new album!

For those of you following our kickstarter fundraiser; we started about 2 months back on a journey to fund our new album by going directly to our fans. Since we're an independent band we have full control over the direction of our band. Which means we're able to set the price of our music and make it available directly to you in whatever format we want.

Since many of you were already planning on purchasing our album when it came out, it just made sense to allow you to pre-order it with a bunch of other cool merchandise. By pre-ordering the album we were able to fund the recording process.

The campaign was a complete success thanks to your loyalty and support. Now it's time for us record this thing! We're heading to Montreal in a few weeks to start the process. We'll be posting updates on here for you to follow along at home.

Thanks a million!

Ross, Keith, Brent & Will - theWANDAS

theWANDAS Nominated for Best Pop Act of 2010 by Boston Music Awards

We're honored to announce that theWANDAS have been nominated by the Boston Music Awards for best Pop Act of 2010. There are plenty of other great bands nominated for the BMAs. Some of our friends such as the Bodega Girls, Mean Creek, Stereo Telescope, Freezepop were also nominated to name a few. Congrats to everyone who was nominated. It's great to be part of an exciting and supportive music scene in our home town of Boston, MA. Looking forward to 2011.

Kickstarter Update & Live Video of "The Lady"

For those of you following along at home, our Kickstarter campaign is moving along nicely. Kickstarter.com is a web site that allows artists to fund projects by connecting with their fans directly. In our case, fans can get our music before anyone else, pickup limited edition vinyl and USB drives along with a host of other cool packages like a camping trip in our RV or a live performance at your house. Some people have been so generous that they simply pledged money and opted out of receiving the merchandise all together!

We've already raised over $7,500 of our $10,000 goal which is amazing, but we only have 18 days left to go. The funding period ends on DECEMBER 1st. This is a hard deadline. If we don't reach $10,000 by this point all of the money is returned to those who pledged and the album doesn't get made.

We posted a live video of "The Lady" from Ralph's Diner in Worcester, MA. It's only available on our Kickstarter page, so you have to CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

If you want to see what this whole kickstarter fundraiser is all about, take a minute and watch our video explaining everything below.

 

Thanks for all of the continued support!

 

Cheers,

Ross

CMJ 2010 - Recap

After spending many months cooped up in practice space working on new material, it was time to dust off the RV and take a mini tour to New York City for the week of the CMJ Music Marathon. Most commonly described as a smaller/Northeast version of Texas'South By Southwest, CMJ Music Marathon is a week of some of the best up and coming and established acts from around the world that gather in NYC for a week of shows, industry panels, and rock and roll debauchery.

Our week was anchored around our showcase at the Bowery Poetry Club on Friday evening. The night was extra special because also on the bill was one of our favorite Boston bands; The Honors. Aside from putting on a stellar set (as usual) The Honors came to our rescue when Brandon (singer/guitarist of The Honors) offered up his semi-hollow body axe to Keith mid-set after Keith broke a string. Thanks to Brandon's rock n roll instincts and lightening fast reaction time, our set didn't miss a beat.

The show was a great success. The venue was packed with eager concert goers looking to discover some new music along with some of our loyal NYC fans. Also in the audience, our pal Hilary Hughes  from the Boston-based publication The Weekly Dig who we haven't completely annoyed yet, because she still pops up at our shows across the country. "I go to Wandas shows knowing that I’ll get a consistently superlative set" - Hilary Hughes, The Weekly Dig.

theWANDAS CMJ 2010 - Beast of Northeast Photo Booth - Michael Basu

The theme of the week seemed to be friendship. Even in a city with 9 million people, within an hour of picking up our badges, we bumped into our buddies Ezra Huleatt (singer of Black Taxi) and comedian Ben Kronberg somewhere between Greenwich Village and The Lower East Side. Aside from the pleasant surprises we also went to see some of our favorite Boston groups,  Mean Creek, McAlister Drive and Bodega Girls; all putting on great sets. The week couldn't have come to a better climax when we saw back to back sets of our pals from the Montreal outfit The High Dials and NYC's own Akudama. A great ending to a great week. 

Cheers,

Ross 

 

Buffalo, NY & Rochester, NY

As we were winding down our tour we landed in another city we've never played before; Buffalo, NY. We arrived early to the gig so we took a stroll around town. The area was filled with cool shops and friendly locals. It reminded me a bit of Newport, RI and Cape Cod, MA. 

The venue we were playing at was a very nice restaurant / bar called Merge which regularly features live music & comedy shows. The venue was an intimate setting so we decided to try out a simplified version of our set using acoustic guitars and a modified percussion setup. 

The result was very fun for us. We got to really connect with the audience and play different versions of our songs for the first time. After the show we stayed local as we were heading to 90.5 WBER in Rochester, NY for a radio show the next day.

It was only fitting that the DJ who invited us to the station goes by the name Boston Erik; us Bostonians need to stick together! We had a great time hanging out at the station, answering questions and playing a couple acoustic tunes. Of course we can't forget our favorite part of doing any radio show; recording station ID voice overs. For this one we gave our best over the top Boston accent in honah of Bahstahn Erik.

We've got a big weekend coming up back in New England with us playing the 95.5 WBRU Summer Concert Series in Providence RI and then back in Boston at Tommy Doyle's.

Cheers,

Ross 

Kalamazoo, MI

After we enjoyed our extended stay in Chicago we began our trek back towards the east coast. First stop on the way, a quaint college town in Michigan that goes by the name of Kalamazoo.

The venue vibe was very fitting for the night; a mix of indie rock and old school country. The night featured a couple of bluegrass acts and ourselves. It's been great hearing some different styles of music on this tour. It was especially nice in Kalamazoo because we love country and bluegrass music.

 theWANDAS stage setup at The Strutt: Kalamazoo, MI

After the show we had our longest drive of the tour; a solid 8 hours to Buffalo, NY so we did a few hours at night and got up early today to continue on our way.

Tonight we are at Merge in Buffalo, NY. See you there!

Cheers,

Ross

Chicago, IL

On the road there are some cities you always know are going to a great time; Chicago is one of them. I don't know if it's the deep dish pizza, the breeze off of the Great Lakes, or the ghost of Muddy Waters but there is something in the air that always makes Chicago fun place to be. 

We had our show at the Elbo Room; the same place we performed last time we were in town. The Elbo Room really is a fun place to play. It's two floors of music with the rock club in the basement. It has an excellent vibe with amazing sound, lights, and of course the quintessential rock n roll product; the fog machine.

The night couldn't have been more fun. We had a mix of new fans, old friends, and even one of our favorite Boston music reporters; Hilary Hughes was in town and at the show. I think setting the record for most distance traveled by a non-family member for our shows; Boston, Austin, and now Chicago.

theWANDAS at The Elbo Room: Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Hilary Hughes

We had a whirlwind of a time after the show traveling through the city with a pack of people made up of performers, friends, and fans who gathered throughout the course of the evening. We ended up closing down some hole in the wall pub that had to be packed 2 times over capacity; followed by diner-breakfast and briskly walking back to the RV in order get to bed before the sun comes up and turns the RV into a sauna.

Luckily we always seem to schedule a day off in Chicago to recuperate and enjoy the city. Now I'm off to hit up our favorite taco joint in the country for the 3rd time this trip.

Cheers,

Ross

Cincinnati, OH & Indianapolis, IN

Prior to touring my knowledge of Cincinnati was limited to Pete Rose and the Cincinnati Reds. Well I can't say I've learned too much more about the city but I can say we had a good time and it was fun seeing a new place. One of the highlights was pulling up the RV right next to the club where there was an awesome record store. Record stores have been a dying breed for some time now; so it's always cool to find a new one, especially one that is embraced by the local community and still thriving. I knew it was a good sign when I walked in and the first CD's I saw were of artists who we played two of our favorite shows with: Justin Townes Earle (in Worcester, MA) and The Duhks (in Atlanta, GA). 

Brent picked up some tunes by Dylan, The Pink Fairies, and Lou Reed. Albeit it was Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music which was purchased primarily for comedic purposes to annoy us while we were driving in the RV. The show was in a dingy rock and roll tavern; needless to say we felt right at home. Keith caught up with an old friend who has since moved to the midwest and a good time was had by all.

Two acts theWANDAS have played with 1,000 miles apart; together at the record store. Justin Townes Earle & The Duhks

Next up was the Vollrath Tavern in Indianapolis, IN. Last U.S. tour this was our second to last stop and by the time we finished up I was so burnt out that I don't think I ever got to write about our time in Indy. The bar we played at is famous for being one of John Dillinger's hangouts/underground getaways from the police during his heyday. The owner gave us a tour of the basement (which the locals say is haunted) and it did not disappoint in it's creepiness. Getting back to last tour; the bar had completely cleared out towards the end of the night when a group of people came into the bar. Keith and Brent decided to put on a private acoustic show for them; seeing they missed the night's earlier festivities. We ended up keeping in touch and they came back to see the full band this time.

It's always fun to see familiar faces especially when you're on the road. It gives you a feeling of community; even when you're a long way from home. Adding to the mix was a good friend of mine from college who has since moved to Indy as well. Talk about a trooper; this guy donated blood right before the show, drank Narragansett beer with us all night and had to wake up at 6am for work; definitely a true UMASS alum.

The show was a blast. We shared the stage with some great local acts and another awesome band called Humdrum from St. Louis, MO.

Tonight we're headed to one of our favorite cities to play, Chicago, IL!

Cheers,

Ross

 

Dayton, OH

When we left Pennsylvania we had the day off heading into Ohio. We got word that touring bands get free admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so we decided to check it out. We also hung out with some friends we met last time we played Cleveland, so it was a great time all around.

We headed south of Cleveland to Dayton, OH; our first time in the city. We played at very cool neighborhood venue that specializes in live music, gourmet pizza, and craft beers. Needless to say we indulged in a little of everything.

The show went really well, we've been playing a handful of new songs this tour and they're really starting to gel. The local crowd was great. They were very receptive, enthusiastic and friendly. We will definitely be back to Dayton, OH.

Keith, Brent, & Will making new friends in Dayton, OH

Tonight we're heading to Cincinnati

Cheers,

Ross