THE WOODBOX GANG: Wormwood

The Woodbox Gang

Wormwood

© 2002 Roll Your Own Records (628740635827)

CD OUT OF STOCK for re-production. Expect long delays.

If you want us to email you the minute this CD arrives, enter your name and email address here. We will not give or sell your info to anyone, and will not use it for any other reason than to tell you when it arrives.

(About MP3 downloads at CD Baby)

Caustic acoustic cacophony returns on this explosive release.

tracks

1 God Box Wagon
2 Dot Com Machine
3 Devil Blues
4 Oh Woman
5 Sardine
6 Skyclad
7 Family Night
8 Soap In My Mouth
9 Confidence Man
10 Scarecrow
11 Annie Dhydde
12 Black Yodel No. 7
13 Squirm Squirm Squirm
14 Panther Song
15 If I Had My Druthers
16 They Came In Black

notes

Wormwood was released in January 2002. At that time, the Woodbox Gang was a 3 piece group consisting of Hugh DeNeal (vocals & acoustic guitar), Brian DeNeal (Bass & Crowbar), and Alex Kirt (vocals & multi-instrumentalist). Wormwood also featured guest musicians such as Randy Crouch (fiddle), Julie Sommers (harmony vocals), and Brad Bolin (Dobro, lap steel). Wormwood is the topically and musicially the darkest, most haunting album that the Woodbox Gang has released. Wormwood contains perhaps their most creative and diverse use of instrumentation. They used gas cans, crowbars, iron pipes, kazoos, washboards, a snow shovel, hammond organ, acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, jews harp, an ashtray, 2x4's, jug, and drums to create the spooky tones on Wormwood. This album was voted "Best Album of 2002" by Carbondale's Nightlife Magazine. Coincidentally, the Woodbox Gang was voted "Best Local Band" that same year. Wormwood is a glimpse of the Woodbox Gang at the time when they finally perfected their own original style, a style to which they have remained true in the years since 2002.
Biography: From the village of Makanda in extreme southern Illinois, in a little hollow called Vulture Valley, comes a "caustic acoustic cacophony" known as the Woodbox Gang. They have skillfully combined the American roots music styles of bluegrass, delta blues, folk, and traditional country with the aggressive delivery of punk rock to create their own style of music to which they have given the name "Trashcan Americana". The band is very interested in experimenting with the combined sounds of various conventional and non-conventional instrumentation to create sonic landscapes specifically tailored to the mood and theme of each composition. Hugh DeNeal, their chief lyricist, uses his poetic talents to craft twisted tales of a dark, yet often humorous nature. The Woodbox Gang specializes in "story telling" songs. The group has shared the stage with artists such as Hank Williams III, the John Cowan Band, & many others. Alternative country icon Jason Ringenberg (Jason and the Scorchers) has been quoted in several interviews citing the Woodbox Gang as one of his favorite new bands.
The Woodbox Gang's influences are as diverse as the music which they perform. The group admires artists such as Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and the Ramones for their enduring inventiveness and their courage to "do their own thing, regardless of what anyone else may or may not be doing." The band's multi-instrumentalist Alex Kirt says "We are influenced by everything we've heard, whether it's a symphony orchestra or a push rod knockin' in an old 350 engine. Just about anything that makes a sound can be used to enhance the mood of a tune." This idea can be heard on any one of the group's officially released 4 studio albums & 2 live albums on which they've used traditional guitar, mandolin, lap steel, banjo, fiddle, and bass combined with didjeridoos, kazoos, sawblades, gutbuckets, crowbars, ashtrays, and rusty gasoline cans to add brilliant audio hues their musical palette.

reviews

Please log in to review this album.

  • Wormwood
    author: Sue

    If you read all of the reviews about this cd they are 100% correct. Just like any of the other WBG cd's, this one kicks just as much ass as the rest of any of their others! My favorites off this album are numbers 2,6,11,12 and the grand finale....number 15! But they all rock, buy it and you will see too!

  • hot diggety damn
    author: brett

    warning: this album will cause repeated spontaneous moments of tomfoolery, hootenanying and even a little thrash square dancing. hours of fun for the whole dysfunctional family!!!

  • Is that Hunter S Thompson in the Liner Note Photos?!?!
    author: Matthew

    If it is it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Fear and Loathing in the Backwoods could be the alternate title. Slim Cessna's Auto Club and Drive by Truckers trippin' in Circus Circus. Excellent Lyrics!! Enough good music for two albums. The second album can start with Scarecrow. God Box Wagon is worth the price alone. Plus you get 15 more songs for free!!

  • Umm.... damn?
    author: Jack Deatherage, Jr.

    This ain't no sit "back and enjoy" collection of punkgrass. If you ain't listening and thinking you're missing most of what these guys throw at you. If there is beauty in pain, confusion and misery then this is a beautiful collection. How the WBG can play so well and sing such pain is a wonderment to behold.

  • Dark, Flavorful, and somewhat crunchy!!!!
    author: Collins

    I met the Woodbox Gang recently at a show in St. Louis...These guys are the most vibrant, intelligent, talented bunch of self-proclaimed hillbillies I have ever met!!! MAN...what a talented band...and THIS ALBUM is great!!!! I reccomend waiting til dark, turning out the lights / lighting the candles...putting the CD in...grabbing some headphones...and start pouring the whiskey...you'll be immersed in the 'Gangs' world in no time flat...what a fantastic trip!!!!!!

  • This is one fine album.
    author: Kyle

    By turns hilarious and sobering, The Woodbox Gang's music is somewhere between Uncle Tupelo and Slim Cessna's Auto Club, yet entirely original. This is one fine album.

  • Excellent band, awesome cd
    author: Monique

    I am from their home town and came cross this cd and it is sooo good. buy it buy it buy it.

email

Please log in to email this artist.