Liza & the WonderWheels: News

The fabulous Kristina Latour of latourdeforceproductions.com used some WonderWheels music in a commercial! She's a talented video editor specializing in performer reels, promos, keepsake/event videos & photo/VHS archiving to DVD. This multi-talented sweetie has written a "play with music" called Temping & she'll be performing in two readings of it in April. Thanks Kristina! You rock!

View the commercial here!

Great review of Friday's show at the Parkside Lounge here . Thank you Alan Young & Lucid Culture!

Hey! Well I knew this would happen.... that's why I stayed out of social networking for so long. It is fun, and whoo have I learned some secrets about some of you, but here I am totally neglecting my own web site because everybody's looking at Facebook .

And there's so much going on...

This YouTube post of us playing "Playing Checkers" live at our June 16th show at The Delancey for a start...
I'm sorry web site! I'll try to do better...

Next show is Friday, Sept. 4 @ The Parkside, New York City.

I'm not nostalgic, I'm just cleaning files off the memory of my computer... check out this link to olden days.

So the WonderWheels played our first show in a year and a week last Friday. It was good to all be back in the same car going towards a gig. Red Hook, where ever. We did it for ourselves, to do it, and it was a huge bonus that so many friends came out to see.

It felt good, fun, strenuous. It was my first show playing with a distortion pedal which I used at a low-mid level pretty much throughout the show. It is this kind of pedal which has a rude name. Ian calls mine my Iron Muff because I purchased it at guitar center which is a crappy big-box type of place to buy gear, but we were in a time crunch on the way out for an England tour and needed guitar leads and another mic ASAP the day before. So I'm charging up the credit card & I see they're having a special on these distortion boxes and I'm like throw one in, thanks. But, partly because Guitar Center is so concerned that the people going in their store are secret master thieves masquerading as money-parting musicians that they keep your purchases out of your hands until you are out the door, and maybe partly because I was in a hurry and didn't double-check until already on the train, I ended up receiving the cheaper version made in Russia instead of the NYC re-issue one I wanted. Because we were on a plane to the UK the next day, I never did anything about it, and when I got around to using the pedal it was all crackly and crappy and past it's return date, so it sat around for a while until Joe said a friend of his, also named Joe, could probably fix it. So I left it in the Pit and forgot about it. Months later the pedal came back to me fixed, and it sounds great with my Gibson Goldtone tube amp, and that is the story of my Iron Muff.

Our set was:
After Last Night*
Where's My Robot Maid*
Learning Lessons*
Playing Checkers
P-E-T-R-O-L-E-U-M*
Walking Peaceful
Midnight Lightening
No Exceptions*
Eddie Come Down (MEET THE ANIMAL)
What You Want

*are songs that will be on our forthcoming third album

Hey! Liza & the WonderWheels are playing a show next Friday 3/13 at Rocky Sullivan's in Red Hook, Brooklyn. See our Shows page for info on that and the upcoming 8th annual Beefstock music festival taking place April 3, 4, & 5 at Full Moon resort in the Catskills.

It never ceases to amaze me, like magnetized particles, the power of people coming together. The adaptability as we type a winter's night away sharing thoughts and feelings and the human experience, everybody expressing their singular perception and bumping off of each other with a spectrum of intentions and velocities. And the scene's power to call itself together in Maplewood, NJ for a Song Swap in the afternoon then back on the Lower East Side for Love Camp 7's release of their excellent new album Union Garage in the evening last Saturday. The thought of playing solo acoustic feels scary and vulnerable, but the act of actually doing it is a lot of fun. I played 2 very new songs - "What You Want" and "Cast Away" - and "Midnight Lightening" which I would classify as sort of recent, no longer new. Rebecca put together a wonderful combination of performers, and we all got to know each other in an atmosphere of juice and mini doughnuts and an art exhibit of quilts hung from every wall.

Getting a lift back to the city in a car full of songwriters, we giggled about 'the business end of Maplewood' and the number of bright yellow 'Do Not Touch Quilts' signs strewn around the Arts Center. It reminded me of earlier days going to open mics and doing crazy late night no-pay residencies at songwriter cafes, happy just to have arrived in New York City and found a place to play, and still enthralled and unbelieving that songs are something I can write.

Great days! WonderWheels practice was pretty slamming this week. We're back in form and refreshed from our hibernations, diversions, illusions. The show at Rocky's is going to be very interesting.

Facebook - it's the new blogging...

Liza & Ian are looking forward to playing the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap at the 1978 Maplewood Arts Center this Saturday. See the shows page for details and an article about the swap in the New York Times.

For anyone feeling Maplewood, NJ is inaccessible without a car, join us on New Jersey Transit - the 3:11 train from Penn Station on the Morristown Line arrives in Maplewood at 3:50 and you will be guaranteed a ride from the train station to the Arts Center and back again after the swap.

New page of photos up from the show + video shoot we did at Kenny's Castaways back in February 2007. The resulting video for "Where Is My Robot Maid?" was released online in November and can be seen by scrolling down this page. Thanks again to the Yes We Can! Yes We Did! team of James Dean Conklin + Elisa Zazzera. They're in India right now documenting the Climate Solutions Road Tour with Solar Punch. We're thinking we did something right in a former life to have such a high level fabulosity & professionalism helping with our visuals.

On the audio side, I am in possession of the tracked + mixed comp of our third record! I know! It's been a long time commin'... we should be on to mastering by the end of the month.

This Friday, Jan. 16 at 9:00 (eastern standard time) Liza will be playing keyboards and singing a little to the progressive-psychedelic-pop stylings of Ian's band The Larch . If you are in the New York metro area, come to the show at Arlene's Grocery for $10 at 95 Stanton Street on the Lower East Side OR - and I'm talking to you Berkeley Lovebirds and of course Portland & Seattle, you guys can relax with us when you get off work Friday, and UK if you'd care to stay up late we can have a nightcap together on the Strawberry Coast - because everybody can STREAM THE
SHOW FOR FREE at http://www.musikville.com

Hey look who's actually booking showS (multiple) for 2009. I know!

Did you know (adept bass player) Andy is in India on the climate solutions road tour playing with solar powered band Solar Punch ?

Yes, there will be a Liza & the WonderWheels set at the Beefstock 8 music festival. See the shows page for more info.

We are #94 in Radio Crystal Blue's 2008 chart of best recording artists of the year!

It's pretty fantastic that people are still playing - much less accolade-ing - our 2006 release MEET THE ANIMAL. I'm also pleased our third record is very near completion, so much so that I can say with confidence that 2009 will see its release.

Happy New Year!

Posted a new group of photos from our set at MFA 6, better late than never. There's also a new self-portrait from the beginning of the really short hair pixie cut last winter.

Did you know I have always kind of hated blogging? It's true. This whole Facebook thing is certainly a lot, lot easier.

THE VIDEO IS DONE! Here is our Robot Maid:


Thanks James Dean !

What a great weekend: Halloween, Day of the Dead, Marathon Day. That's how it went down here in Brooklyn, New York City.

Marathon Day offers a lot of great metaphors, Sunday brunch-time socializing, and an incredible amount of trashed paper cups and racer's debris. I can't pretend to understand running in a pack like that, but hey to each their chosen form to practice. I too am in training with the playing and writing, performing, conveying, courting the currents of interpretation, etc. And life's a long journey (if you're lucky), and this past year especially I have felt the pull of multiple races. That's because for the past two-three years I've been working on changing my other career - the one I have in addition to my life, represented by this website, of fabulous front-woman of genius rock obscurity. I'm convinced that for the course of my life, the extra effort of these years will have been worth it, but yeah my this year my time with music has really suffered. And while in absence, my heart did grow fonder! And I've been playing for myself these past several days and let's just say my quads need to be stretched, but I'm still in pretty great shape.

Also, I started a Facebook page , which means today is my first day of organized online social networking...

Happy Halloween! Maybe I am right next to you, but wearing a wig so you can't recognize me...

Vladapalooza III is tonight.


Evidence from the Box of Crayons set at Vladapalooza the first. And one of those find 'em games. Can you spot the four Wheels in this video?

Does anyone else have a tradition of calling the night before Halloween "Devil's Night"? I first heard this in Detroit in the 90's, when people in that town were really excited about basketball, and Oct. 30 was prank night - Devil's night which included, all in a spirit of good fun, everything from egging the Motor City's cars to trying to burn entire blocks down. (Or up)

So does that make today Devil's Day? In a way that sounds fun... The words Devilish and Kittenish having always felt neighborly almost synonomous to me. But I guess on second thought, from a srtict definition-ist view point, Devilish has to be bad, so how about Playful? Let's all be light-hearted and playful today, say something funny, a day of dis-disguisement before all the mascarade parties of the weekend.

I was determined to post again today although my main computer-thing was acting a little funny: I think the cat may have walked across it while it was on sleep function and accidentally locked it or something. Thankfully I have this super-advanced communicator handheld thing-y, but it has no spell-check.

Hi, it's me, Liza. Just because my rock band is taking a few months off to disincorporate and evolve is really no excuse for my not having rapped at ya in such a time. Time, yeah, it mostly is about time. Not enough of it to go around in 2008, but I put my feet down to slow things moving into this holiday season. What reason, really, I mean why go through all the work and resistance and struggle without allowing for a celebration now and then? So I returned to my life, my reality by catching up on sleep and reading a Margaret Atwood book ( The Blind Assassin).

Sent this invitation out today:

SUN 9/7 WonderWheels VIDEO SHOOT you are invited...

Hey WonderFriends,

This SUNDAY September 7 from 3-6 in the afternoon we're gonna be lighting up the backroom at Freddy's as we shoot the final round of footage for a WonderVideo for our song "Where's My Robot Maid?"

The plan is to embed this video gem right into the CD of our third record which will be released in January (exact release date tba...)

Freddy's - at 485 Dean St. between 6th Ave. and Flatbush in Brooklyn - has always been so super-great to us... Donald and the regulars at Freddy's have understood our philosophical-psychedelic brand of jammy New York rock right from the beginning, and supported us and gave us room to grow up as Liza & the WonderWheels.

I really wanted to include Freddy's in this very exciting video project. Our director is none other than the very cool, very creative James Dean Conklin who we've already enjoyed working with to shoot footage on location, so the plan for this Sunday is basically just to bring it all back home and capture some live playing and partying, and you are invited!

Be in the vid or not, it's up to you! Also on the calendar it's Open Mic night in the evening, so bring an instrument, stick around and let's all play together.

Some impressive links about Director JDC:
http://www.greenheadmedia.org http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0174696/ http://www.parsons.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty_details.aspx?dID=69&sdID=91&pType=2&id=4508
Freddy's: http://www.freddysbackroom.com
And don't forget primary elections the following Tuesday 9/9. Polling places in NYC are open from 6am-9pm. General elections in years when we're voting for Prez are the most attended. The primary election next Tues. will be way less attended and our votes will determine who the masses in November are choosing between. Here in Bay Ridge the local congressional seat is up for grabs thanks to Vito Fossella's hypocritical indiscretions. The two main democrats running are Harrison who is AGAINST the war in Iraq and McMahon who is NOT. Go research, go local, go vote YES to indie rock music videos!

Where's my robot maid?
You'd think this mess could be clean by now
Where's my robot maid?

We'll use our jet packs to fly to our space station schools
Science will make sense as we all eat such healthy foods

Where's my flying car?
You'd think technology and things being what they are
Where's my flying car?

We'll go together to holographic movies
We'll all have androids at work to do our duties

Where's my robot maid?
Where's my robot maid?

[Bridge]
I don't want the worries of the rich / you should know by now I'm no materialist
But the modern world - so disenchanted / find my future more romantic

Where's my robot maid?
You think this mess could be cleaned up by now
Where's my robot maid?

Also, didn't want Sept. 2 to completely slip by without saying happy birthday to our deceased friend Lila Levy... Yo Chila, where ever you are we chove you!

Ian & Liza will be performing in the form of The Larch this Saturday evening at Arlene's Grocery on a bill with the Actual Facts at 7, Paula Carino at 8 and us at 9.

I've written a new musing on life, death, illness and mortality in the form of a psychedelic pop tune - "Cold Wind."

It hardly needs to be said that compared to the trail of gigs in the four years preceding, for the last six months we've been re-calibrating in the Wonder-cave, so A) it'd be nice to see you Saturday at The Larch show and B) almost when you least expect it, I promise the next Anagen phase of The LizaSongs Project will be upon us, like Christmas, like your Birthday, like the Future.

Hail Summer
Full of Heat
Let August be thy name
The Beaches Roam
Your hills run down
On Earth as this is our Heaven

Thank you Dr. J for playing us last Tuesday, July 8 on your School of Rock radio program on 99.5 FM WUDR the radio station of University of Dayton in Ohio.

Even more excitement last week when we WonderWheels went on location to King's County Carburetors for the photo shoot for our upcoming third record. We were so fortunate to be able to use this ideal location, and our absolute visionary Goddess of a photographer, Kristie Lee Dickson , did a beyond superior job. I already have contact sheets in my possession and am so super-pleased.

We were also attended by our fabulous video director James Dean Conklin who has undertaken the multi-faceted process of making a music video happen.

The garage we shot in was so perfect, real and grimy. We all got a little (more) dirty. I don't think of myself as a model, and I could certainly write a dissertation about how telly has increased the importance of how people who make music look out of all proportion, but I think we've developed a pretty great formula for executing these style obligations with grace and good times:

1) Find a totally excellent, visually interesting and unusual location that has a story to tell for itself
2) Get dressed up to the best of your ability
3) Show up, don't stress, and goof around
4) Use an amazing photographer with a naturally great eye who genuinely likes you

Well, it works for us...

This is the lull-time in the ebb and flow, this time before the release of our third record... meanwhile our 2006 album MEET THE ANIMAL continues entertain some ears:

Thanks to Radio Crystal Blue for spinning our songs enough to make their Summer 2008 Airplay Chart .

And those lovely Aussies at ZFM not only continue to play our music, they've used an edited clip from Song About a Pigeon on this promo thing - scroll all the way to the end, we're the last piece of music.

You know what's really cool? Saturday night I was at this party having a hard time fitting myself into the overall vibe, wondering what twist of path brought me to be invited to a times square nightclub anyway, when I spotted a friend in the crowd and went over to talk. She introduced me to her husband and he said nice to meet you. Then she told him I was the same person whose record they were listening to the other day, and his whole face lifted and lightened and he said Wow I really love you, and I'm still blown away every time by the connections art enables us to create. I feel so very grateful, thank you for the love.

You see the thing is that I'll never quit; I'll never quit interacting with the world from an intentionally creative, artistic perspective. I may neglect my online persona, sidestep exposure and fail to respond to e-mails inviting me to join online social networks, but I am artist. While I live, where I live, there is art.

Yes, how pretty and idealistic, until the artist's path presents those candyland swamps, and deserts, and lonely narrow rope bridges where you can only navigate the crossover by yourself. It's a tricky thing, really to keep your artist to yourself after the novelty of inspiration has been weathered by all of Spring's changes and challenges. To keep a mystery something you can also depend upon, to keep from dispersal the best thing that you share.

It's Summer now, and there has been an association aligned with my artist for years. We've missed a play or two recently, but now have survived to see a collective rally which I hope is not short-lived. This is all to say that there will be a third WonderWheels record after all, not a moment too soon as further songs and future plans keep more and more coming.

What are those flat and numbered objects falling, falling through the air? The cards, the cards and events unfolding, constantly changing. As I said last week by the time anyone realizes how good, be great, be gone, be on to the next thing.

Nothing real to report yet, but hiatuses delay the release of our third as the future grows brighter yet in a rebirth of freedom and creativity. The songs come. My voice is clear. Some places (but not very many) they are throwing money at us. Oh how lucky.

Ready for something less nebulous? Our podmate band The Larch HAS A GREAT BIG SHOW. Thursday, May 8. 7pm at Arlene's Grocery .

24+ other bands can also say the same thing right now: we're heading off to Beefstock VII, be back Monday.