James Jackson Toth: New Album

Former Wooden Wand Leader Returns Under Vaguely Familiar Name

James Jackson Toth

The highly prolific artist formerly known as Wooden Wand, James Jackson Toth has announced the release of not one but two releases under the name WAND for early 2009. Toth has also just completed work in the studio with a brand new supergroup of sorts called The Jescos. The new band features Timothy Bracy, formerly of The Mendoza Line along with members of alt-country faves Glossary and We Were The States.

Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label has once again signed on with Toth under his new moniker to release Hard Knox or “Are You Sure Hank Jr Done It This Way?”, a collection of WAND demos and home recordings, on May 26.

“To quickly address the elephant in the room,” Toth explains, “certainly, collections of demos, outtakes and home recordings are mostly bogus, so let’s cut to the chase. In my defense, all of the cuts contained herein are ‘songs’ in the traditional western sense – my experiments in ‘surf harmonica’ and ‘doom zydeco’ will not be chronicled here, deep and plentiful as those archives may be.”

Things have been uncharacteristically quiet since the release of last summer’s Waiting In Vain album (JamBase review), but 2009 looks like it’s back to business as usual. On March 31, Toth will release the first album under the name WAND via Olympia’s People In A Position To Know Records and his own Mad Monk imprint. This is a limited edition release.

Onward to the present, Toth’s latest project The Jescos has completed recording its debut for release later this year. Timothy Bracy and Toth formed the band to pay tribute to their mutual love of classic songwriters and the rock and roll zeitgeist. The band also features Elizabeth Nelson & Bingham Barnes from Glossary, Tyler Coppage (We Were The States) and Brian Lowery. You can read Toth’s play-by-play/color commentary for the recording session on his blog, www.tothtellsthetruth.blogspot.com.

Toth is also currently writing for his next official full length, a follow-up to 2008’s Waiting In Vain, collaborating with famed guitarist/producer Jon Tiven, and performing in a new band called Occult Activity On Campus with Bummer RoadChris “Crittle” Davis, among others.

Hard Knox or, “Are You Sure Hank Jr. Done it This Way?” Track Listing:
01. Arriving
02. Chrome
03. Lady of Situations
04. Eyes
05. Saturday Delivery
06. Blamelessness
07. All These Generous Men
08. Trails
09. Urchins
10. Dead of Night
11. Dark Is Bending
12. The Drag Pit
13. Death Dealer Blues
14. Soldier Movies (For Larry McMurtry)