Show at the Delancy and other updates!
3) Tuesday May 15th We are The Woods have the honor of opening up for one of our favorite bands, Flying Cars at The Delancey. We hit at 8PM sharp don’t be late and don’t wear a tarp (that’s my final warning). http://thedelancey.com/events.html
Making Masterpieces/Chicken Broth Forever/Watching Joni Mitchell Doc
Dear Lovers,
I’m writing you from the studio but not really from the studio because I’m home with a cold watching documentaries and drinking all manner of fluids. But I’m thinking about the new record we’re making constantly – we’re already tracking but in a few days our pledge music page will be up where you can donate to help us get together the funds we need to finish this Beast and mix it, master it, put it in a stew…
It is a beast – it’s coming out great, greater than I’d dare to hope a record baby of mine could dare to be. Its like when some decent looking parents get together and bam! Make a super model baby and everyone stands back in awe…How. Did. They. Do. That?!! That baby is stupendous looking! That’s how I feel about a lot of the songs I write too. Just watching a Joni Mitchell documentary (in my robe, drinking chicken broth, hair all in a fuzz) and she starts to riff on songwriting, the process etc…Joni says that it goes back to the Irish way, sometimes the blarney is with you and flowing and sometimes it’s not. That it’s all about being open and aware of when that sweet sweet blarney wants to have it’s way with you and catching it like rain in a summer thunder storm, drinking it down and singing out in the sheer drunken electrical pleasure of having harnessed a power far greater than your own…or something like that, my Netflix is acting bratty so I can’t access the vid right now to get the exact quote (forgive me). Now that the older songs are finally getting birthed and babied in the studio, swaddled and fed and fussed over, I feel the reaching out, the tentacles of new ones wanting to come through. It’s starting with a lot of listening and appreciation and questions. We did a lot of driving this weekend and I listened over and over to the chief soundtrack of my childhood: Crosby Stills and Nash self titled album, Crosby Stills and Nash.
Oh man, my brother and I cruised all over this great nation in the back of one beat up station wagon after another, him always covered in juice or something intolerably sticky, singing the doo doo doo doo part at the end of Suite Judy Blue Eyes at the top of his little and all too powerful lungs (Love you Davie if you’re reading this). So I listened to this record a lot and oh how it moved me! To tears and laughter. Those songs still saying everything to me, speaking to me of the best things in life and maybe just because those harmonies are inextricably linked to brilliant pink orange 1980s sunsets and the strange safety net of my parents’ wacky sense of family, all I knew, all I needed.
Then I listened over and over to those fresh new bucks on the scene, direct descendents of CSN, the Fleet Foxes, specifically their latest record, Helplessness Blues. It’s a masterpiece I do believe. Real real fine work. And I was particularly struck by these lyrics: “What’s my name, what’s my station, oh, just tell me what I should do I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night that would do such injustice to you Or bow down and be grateful and say “sure, take all that you see”
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls and determine my future for me
And I don’t, I don’t know who to believe I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see”
And so I’m thinking as I hear this HELL YES! And it’s sinking in really in a different way than it has before (connecting in my mind to all the great work being done by Josh Fox, Bill Mckibben, 350.org, and the Occupy folks). No, no we do not need to keep laying down and saying “take all that you see to the men who move only in dimly lit halls and determine” our future for us. It’s so good it bears repeating. Listening to the song, I wait for the theme to be developed further, dare I say even hoping waiting for an answer, a proposal. The sound is so powerful, it portends that one will come. What comes is a section that lightens considerably in melody and lyric, proclaiming that if “If I had an orchard, I’d work till I’m raw
If I had an orchard, I’d work till I’m sore. And you would wait tables and soon run the store.” A dream of a simpler life, a way to be humans of action in a clear and decisive context, screw those dudes in the dimly lit halls man can’t we just go back to the land?
Well we can if there’s land to go back to. I love this song so much and yet in the moment I wanted something more. And this is the bud, the stubborn pushing up through the dirt of life, of a new song for me, to elaborate this question or find some piece of an answer that resonates in my own being and hopefully yours too. Thanks for reading.
With Love,
Jessie
Greetings friends and woodland creatures!
The entire woods family is participating in the 2012 Purple Stride walk to end pancreatic cancer. Team Wendy is hoping to raise $100,000 toward cancer research. If you feel like contributing to the cause or participating in the walk with us, you can find out more on the team page. Hope to see you there!
Studio update: The woods have been hard at work tracking our new album at Threshold Recording Studios NYC for the last several weeks. (See the photographic evidence of our efforts below!) We are approaching the conclusion of this “yet to be named” record that we know you’re going to adore, because it has been made with oodles of love. We will be posting soon about how you can help us finish this project, release these songs, and receive some awesome rewards in return. Stay tuned!
Shoe Friends Forever!
Telecaster Face
Recording at Threshold
Here are some photos of how we spent our weekend. Working with Jeremy Sklarsky and Threshold studios has been a real treat!
Deli Interview
HUGE thanks to everyone who came out to our Rockwood show last night! You were amazing. We would love to see you all next Friday for our set at The Living Room (12/16 9:00 pm sharp!)
Other news…check out our interview with The Deli!
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but if you don’t we get real pissed. ”
We Are the Woods music and unicorns by: Christina Morelli – October 10, 2011
There’s something endearing and catchy about the non-traditional ways that We Are The Woods approach everything from their marketing to their lyrics. Strong voices, beautiful harmonies, and simple melodies speak volumes over the standard folk scene in Brooklyn and New York. Consisting of Jessie Murphy, Marcia Webb and Tyler Beckwith, the trio offers an interesting blend of quirky song titles that match perfectly with their music, songs that both entertain and make thought-provoking statements simultaneously. Recent nominees for The Deli’s “Artist of the Month,” We Are the Woods is working on a steady stream of singles to release following up their debut album “Eight Belles.” The band will be playing the CMJ Showcase at The Living Room on October 19 at 9:30pm.
When did you officially become We Are The Woods?
We’d all been playing together in another project for a couple of years and then last spring we regrouped and formed We Are The Woods (you know the deal, naked baptism in a waterfall, double rainbow overhead, nightingales singing at the break of day).
What are the biggest outside influences to your sound?
Led Zeppelin, Gillian Welch, The Grateful Dead, Levon Helm, Neil Gaiman, Every type of Bear (big ups to Spirit Bears). The Mighty Boosh.
If you were to book your ideal tour, who would you be playing with? Led Zeppelin, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Pretty Lights
How do you differ from the other bands coming out of the New York music scene? The folk matrix is still audible, but here orchestral, pop and even psych elements take over the reins, basically we don’t take ourselves too seriously but if you don’t we get real pissed.
What’s on the horizon in the near future for the Woods? We’re playing a Deli CMJ show on Oct 19th at the Living Room. We’re recording a steady stream of hits and releasing them one by one on the interwebs via our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/werthewoods#p/f). We’re planning on carving pumpkins and ruling the school with pumpkin town 2011.
Ourstage – Review
Big thanks to Kate B for the excellent reivew on Ourstage
Most bands have an m.o., whether it’s simply the love of making music or the dream of power and influence. For Jessie Murphy In The Woods, the drive comes from Murphy’s desire to recapture a perfect autumnal moment from her childhood. And that desire has yielded songs that are literate, bright and haunting. The group is comprised of Murphy, Marcia Wood, and Amy Wood—all music teachers. Between the three you get a quixotic assemblage of woodwinds and brass, percussion and strings. There’s an economy to JMITW’s chamber pop arrangements that gives each idea its own space. “God Save Owen Wilson” is as funny as it is sad—the somber flutter of flute and a baleful horn in the distance juxtapose whimsically with a mock-heroic refrain about, well, Owen Wilson. The vibe is Sufjan Stevens in heels. “New York City Lights,” on the other hand, is folksy romanticism, sung without affectation. The orchestral, theatrical “In The Woods” tries to conjure the faintest whiff of that perfect autumn day, invoking the “virgin forest” with urgency. Even if the moment is forever out of reach, the music that’s produced in its wake is worth the loss.
