LIZA GARELIK: And the WonderWheels

Liza Garelik

And the WonderWheels

© 2003 Liza Garelik (730876902923)

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"Velvet Underground and Bowie fans will definitely want to listen." - Expository Magazine

tracks

1 On The Bridge
2 American Push
3 Wicked Wind
4 Cardboard & Velvet
5 Cecil Sesame
6 Dead Man Talking
7 The Point System
8 Taking Attendance
9 Glam Jacket

notes

This is not shoe-gazer music. This is go down to your town's main shopping street, and take advantage of a recession-sale, and score a pair of red snake-skin boots (fake - no snakes were harmed) that make you feel fabulously outgoing every time you wear them music.

"You sound like Liz Phair, but not as angry." - Tina, fan, Brooklyn, N.Y.
"Your voice can do things I've only heard Laura Nyro's voice do." - Dan Sallitt, filmaker and friend, New York, N.Y.

At the long-running Songwriter's Exchange, held in Jack Hardy's west village apartment, Suzanne Vega called her songwriting "ambitious".

Emily Lazar, chief mastering engineer at The Lodge, NYC, and the person who mastered David Bowie's Heathen and the Lou Reed NYC Man compilation, as well as a host of other recordings said, "Your stuff sounds great! I really enjoyed working on your album."

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Liza Garelik has lived in many different locations, conditions and states of mind. Besides making it difficult to answer the question "So where ya from?" her experiences have informed her on life as an artist and outsider in the United States, and fueled her passion for comparative examination of individuals' sense of place and time, and the symbolic relationship between an artist and her environment.

Liza has studied both vocal music performance and creative writing at the collegiate level, and believes that the inspiration to create like a genius comes to artists who live like they deserve it. Renting in Brooklyn for the past five years, and supporting herself through a variety of jobs, she performed several times as a solo artist, including at the anti-folk hotspot the Sidewalk Café, and opening for the Zen Tricksters at the now defunct Wetlands.
In the last two years she's become supported by a band of experienced musicians - Joe Filosa (drums), Andy Mattina (bass) and Ian Roure (lead guitar) - and debuted her first album (July 2003) to widespread positive response. Recording for a second album is already underway.

Her smart and happy rock music gathers lyric and melodic inspiration from sources as diverse as pop psychedilia (The Beatles, The Pretty Things, The Soft Boys), Detroit political-rock (The MC5, Iggy Pop), Glamour-loving Charismatics (David Bowie, Lou Reed), a devouring passion for literature, the folk music she learned from her parents (Joan Baez especially), the art songs she studied in college, the Brooklyn music scene, an irrational level of affection for Katrina and the Waves, and her connection to the mysterious world of creative inspiration.

Performing with her wonder-band as Liza & the WonderWheels, Liza's shows are earning a reputation as exciting and fun as the 100-year-old Coney Island Ferris wheel the band took its name from. Playing favored hometown venues such as Freddy's backroom in Brooklyn, and the Continental on 3rd Avenue in New York City, Liza is as a vibrant performer whose voice and conviction charms and enlivens as she entertains her listeners.

In addition to her own material, Liza also performs as backing vocalist and keyboard player for NYC Brit-pop band The Larch, and sits in on multiple side-projects.
She hopes you enjoy her record.

reviews

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  • Garelik takes her intellectual approach to songwriting and whirls it into roadtr
    author: Jennifer Layton, www.indie-music.com

    A standout track is the final one, “Glam Jacket,” in which Garelik takes her intellectual approach to songwriting and whirls it into roadtrip rock, leaving glitter on the trail behind her. This is a more gutsy approach to the girl-with-a-guitar thing.

  • Velvet Underground and Bowie fans will definitely want to listen.
    author: Cesca Waterfield, Expository Magazine

    Velvet Underground and Bowie fans will definitely want to listen; "Taking Attendance" is lovely idiosyncrasy, mellow Kristin Hersh; a friend says "Glam Jacket" is reminiscent of the B52s but with Aimee Mann at the mic.

  • A city intellectual with a guitar, Garelik, like [Paula] Carino, structures her
    author: Tris McCall, www.TrisMcCall.net

    A city intellectual with a guitar, Garelik, like [Paula] Carino, structures her songs with the parallelism and craft of a short-story writer and the occasional wit of a brainy comedienne. Singing in a straightforward, self-possessed and unaffected voice and frequently sounding like precocious teenager, Garelik foregrounds her narratives, favoring the same kind of spare-yet-rocking arrangement aesthetic that Carino has always chosen for herself…

  • There's serious chemistry between these four artists, and Garelik's debut probab
    author: Dave Madden www.splendidezine.com

    I salute the singer-songwriter. It seems as if it would be easier to make the NFL draft than successfully launch a career as a guitar-toting troubadour. Luckily, Liza Garelik figured that out, and her solution is to draw upon the power of a great band -- even if she doesn't add the full name, Liza and the Wonder Wheels, to the album cover ("and the Wonder Wheels" appears on the spine). Garelik's lyrics and voice are fairly intriguing, echoing early '90s "alternative" acts like Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield and Throwing Muses. Alone, however, most of her songs fall under the voice-plus-acoustic-guitar awning. Backed by the Wonder Wheels, Garelik is complete, harnessing the diversity of her band to create a very interesting record. On "Wicked Wind", she rants about big-city woes (i.e. making ends meet as an artist: "I was working for dollars and dimes / free me from the cultural overseers") as the band chugs along, holding back when necessary but rocking hard on the choruses to drive home Garelik's point as she chants "go, go, go, go...and take your wicked wind". "Cecil Sesame"'s lyrics wander around in poetic ambiguity, and would probably fall flat if it weren't for the band's Pretenders-style stomp, which adds conviction to the message (think "My City Was Gone", Learning to Crawl). I haven't heard Garelik's other projects, or anything by her other band members (there are a slew of links on the website), but based on this recording, they should to [sic] stick together. There's serious chemistry between these four artists, and Garelik's debut probably only hints at their potential.

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