What Price, Wonderland?

Not completely dead

2011-06-23T17:52:00.001+01:00

Rumours of our demise may have been somewhat exaggerated. After a long time without practicing, playing shows or frankly doing anything band-related together, we finally both practiced and played a show all in the space of 48 hours last weekend.

We were lucky enough to be invited to play a show once again at Albany Road, Manchester, where excellent shows have been taking place for about two years now. It could be a little longer than that, but more to the point it is an incredible place to play a show, where all the bands are made to not only feel at home but like part of the family. They cook amazing food and basically throw the most incredible gigs/parties I've ever attended in the UK. So thanks to them, and all the other bands we played with on Saturday the 18th. I very much doubt the UK will see so many emo bands play one show at the same time (eight of us played!) for a very long time, if ever again.

There was a rumour that the aforementioned show would be our last. It absolutely was not. It may well be our last in a while, as is the way things are these days, but we fully intend to keep doing stuff with the band as and when we can.

You can still buy our records from a few places:

Split 7" with Twisted: http://artforblind.bandcamp.com/track/what-price-wonderland-side

It Is True, It Is Shakey LP & Split 7" with Syn*Error: http://paradeofspectres.blogspot.com/

We are currently in the process of remastering everything we have released from Claim onwards - i.e, what we still have the masters for - which will be released for free. Keep an eye on this blog/and or 'like' us on Facebook for updates on this.

The first of these remasters is our second LP, It Is True It Is Shakey. You can hear them on YouTube below, but we will be uploading 320s and .wavs in the near future:

Other things we are up to right now as follows;

Joe:

La Boite Diabolique - poppy post-punk band with reverb, they have a demo tape out on Coffee Beat Casettes, which is Joe and Phil's - who plays bass in LBD - casette label. They also have a 7" which will be out on SNCL at some point in the near future.
Littlefoot - Joe's moniker for his DJ'ing and production of garage/weird laser music. He has an ep out on Well Rounded records, which is a fantastic label releasing some of the most forward thinking dance music around right now.
Sneinton - Joe's new band, they sound like sad summer evenings alone with a luke-warm beer. Part of the summer band challenge.

James:

Bird Calls - groovy, up-tempo emo. Now with added breakdowns. Absolutely brilliant band featuring not only James, but ex-Twisted drummer Max on guitar and Sam Knight of being in 800 bands fame. You can hear their tape, which is available from Art For Blind, here.
Lost Tapes From The Federal Sessions - I may have a vested interest in this (I designed it), but this is a fucking great 'zine. It's now sold out, but we're talking about doing a second issue. Considering the amount of time and effort that went in to producing issue one, I'm not sure any second issue will come to fruition in the near future, but who knows.

Andy:

Illustration - I've mostly been concentrating on drawing rather than music. I recently released a 'zine called 'Real Men: The Lost Art of the Football 'Tache' which you can buy from my website. I've also done t-shirt designs for the incredible Human Hands and Sofa King.
An as yet unnamed and unpracticed band with Rob and Chaz of Human Hands, part of the summer band challenge.

That's about it. Thanks everyone who still takes even the mildest passing interest in our band. Thanks to all those who travel to shows, who release records and keep our scene alive. Mad love.

All the best,
Andy/WPW

WP,W? YouTube vids compiled

2010-11-11T15:12:00.001Z

Guildford 2010 with Empire! Empire! I was a Lonely Estate. Song: Capitulation.
TOBY WHERE IS THE REST OF THIS? HATE YOU.

Bournemouth 2009. Song: Paintings.

Manchester basement show 2009 with Twisted. Song: Wycombe Wanderers Versus Queens Park Rangers, 1-2 away win, Patrick Agyeamang and Gavin Mahon scoring for the Rs, 9:30pm - 1:30am.

Paris 2007 with Syn*Error. Song: USA (Reagan Youth)

London 2008. Song: ??? (a new song we never played again or recorded).

March 2011 - Syn*Error and What Price, Wonderland? in Europe

2010-11-02T23:23:00.000Z

We are extremely excited and happy to say we're going on tour in mainland Europe again next year! and once again with our buddies Syn*Error. This is in the VERY early stages of being booked and has come together very quickly so we are looking for help pretty much ANYWHERE between 17th - 26th March 2011 but this is the route we are planning/places we'd like to visit:

(14/03 hamburg) Syn*Error only
(15/03 münster/bielefeld) Syn*Error only
(16/03 köln/dortmund) Syn*Error only
17/03 amsterdam/groningen/utrecht/nijmegen (NL) - incl. pick up
18/03 NL/ antwerp/liege/gent (B)
19/03 B/ paris/lille/reims (F)
20/03 F/ basel/ geneve/ zürich (CH)
21/03 torino/milano/brescia (I)
22/03 CH/ innsbruck/ salzburg (A)
23/03 A/ bratislava (SLK)/ brno (CZE)
24/03 CZE/ dresden/ leipzig/munich (GER)
25/03 GER/ krakow/ wroclaw (PL)
26/03 GER/ berlin - THIS SHOW/DATE IS BOOKED

so as you can see, every date but one we need help right now, so if you can help us out or pass this on to someone who may be able to, it would be much appreciated.

if you think you can help us out: whatpricewonderland@gmail.com

thanks! looking forward to meeting new people and meeting old friends again in 2011. so excited.

andy/wpw

listen to our side of the twisted split for free

2010-10-30T11:46:00.003+01:00

Split with Twisted out! Plus 2011 plans.

2010-10-26T21:38:00.000+01:00

So yeah, the split 7" with Twisted is finally out! and it looks absolutely great. Here is visual evidence:

Here is what Andy Malcolm had to say about it:

"what price slam 5 songs down on their side here, and show off a whole LPs worth of ideas in the short time allotted. a couple of quickies, some gorgeous cap'n jazz style hyperactivity, some van pelt, some minutemen. this is like the TARDIS of emo, how on earth did they fit all this into 7 inches? absurd. twisted deliver on the other side, rocking emo / punk with urgent, revolution summer era styled vocals. one last wish crossed with the shitty limits! it works."

Very nice words indeed. You can decide for yourself whether you agree by purchasing it from either Andy himself at SNCL:
http://sncl.collective-zine.co.uk/sncl-what-price-wonderland-twisted-split-p-2810.html

or from Dany/Art for Blind:
http://www.artforblind.com

or also from Toby CJ/Too Cool To Dance
...who is also too cool to have a web-site.

As for the promised news of 2011, for anyone who knows us it won't surprise you to know we are hoping to record some new songs again some time next year. We have some really exciting ideas and plans for our next record, hopefully it will be our best yet. In the next week or so I will hopefully also be able to update this blog with some even more exciting news for 2011 regarding shows/touring.

until then, take care
andy/wpw

8 years of dorky artwork.

2010-08-22T02:47:00.000+01:00

Cross-posting from my Illustration blog:

8 years of What Price, Wonderland? merch

Some things are missing, such as the first 7", but I'm not so proud of the artwork for some of the older stuff anyway!

/Andy

End of tour, future plans, a new blog

2010-08-21T13:45:00.000+01:00

After another awesome tour - our fifth UK tour in the eight years we have been a band, the sixth tour overall having toured mainland Europe three years ago also - it is again time to say thank you to the many people who made the past week as fantastically fun as it was. So quickly, thank you: Ellie and Sam and everyone at Albany Road, Manchester; David in Glasgow; Everyone who turned up at the rushed show at the Peanut gallery, and a big thank you to Eva and John for cooking for us all; Phil and everyone who turned up at the Jam Café in Nottingham; Jay and everyone who came to the Brighton show, also to Lizzie who cooked us awesome food and put up with 8 smelly punks walking through her bedroom to take a shower in the morning; Al, Steve and everyone who came to the Kingston show; The Hipshakes who played both the Manchester and Nottingham shows and who were outstanding; Especially big thanks to Jay who put on the show and put up with all of us being in his house a bit too long in the morning and making him late to work, sorry!; Also to Al who made a huge effort, both cooking vegan food for the first time (which was lovely!) and make the three of us feel particularly at home and comfortable on our last night sleeping away from our own beds; Thanks to anyone who turned up to the Cardiff show. Shame about the local rockstars who played for nearly one and a half hours before Twisted, without any consideration for the touring bands, but hey, when you only play local shows to your friends, how would they know?

As for Twisted - truly one of the most intense and entertaining live bands we have had the pleasure to tour with. This has been such a fantastic week and I wish we could have done a longer tour because Twisted simply get better every time I hear them and spending this week with the five of you has been an absolute pleasure. Buy their newest 7", Stockholm, it is absolutely outstanding: http://www.twistedleeds.org.uk/

I am sure I have forgotten to mention some people, but I have tried my best so please forgive me should that be the case. Be assured we are grateful to anyone and everyone who has come along to the shows, helped make them happen or simply done the little (vital) things such as putting a poster for a show up in their shop or local pub or simply telling their friends to come along. Without you we couldn't have the privilege of being able to do things like this tour.

So what now? The majority of people that know us personally or as a band will probably know the three of us live quite a distance apart. To be exact, 149 miles between Joe and James, with me (Andy) somewhere in-between the two. This obviously brings about its own problems, heightened by the fact we all have jobs now, as well as Joe doing really well with his mastering/producing/DJ work and James playing shows with his other band. As such, we unfortunately don't practice often and, though we try to as often as we can it makes it quite hard to write new songs and, moreover, record them or play them at shows.

However, after eight years this band has become a firm fixture in our lives and I don't think any of us could imagine not trying to do at least a couple of shows a year and to keep writing songs, practicing and touring. We have been toying with the idea of writing and recording a new record of some description while on tour and that will probably be a renewed focus for us in the immediate future, as well as keeping our eyes and ears open for the potential of another tour. Who it will be with, when or where it will be is hard to say but as ever, if you would like to see us play, would like to play with our band our would like to offer us a show, please get in touch.

Thanks for reading.

Andy/What Price, Wonderland?
whatpricewonderland@gmail.com