MAD MACKEREL’S TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

For our first ever Festive Feature on Mad Mackerel, we asked twelve of our favourite bands and artists of 2011 to answer twelve questions and we will publish them over the next twelve days taking us up to Christmas Eve.

Since starting Mad Mackerel it would probably be true to say that James Jackson Toth aka Wooden Wand has been our single favourite discovery. He is blessed with a singular talent in being able to be astonishingly prolific and diverse and yet not suffer any discernible reduction in the quality of his output. Whether it be fire and brimstone folk stompers, whiskey soaked ballads, crazed psychedelia, country tinged rockers or anything else you care to name he seems to have an instinctive feel for how to get it exactly right.

We’ve opined before that in an earlier day and age he would have bestselling books deciphering the true meaning of his songs as lyrically he is as good as anything we have ever heard. If we were to list our top ten favourite lyrics ever he’d probably feature at least three or four times. Thankfully, 2011 has been another good, maybe great, year for him – we’ve had the wonderful Briarwood album originally released via a Kickstarter project and then picked up for general release by the excellent Fire Records and most excitingly the release of Volume 3 (buy here) from his large archives of unreleased material.

1) Three iconic clashes. Who would you vote for in each of these?

a) The Velvet Underground or The Doors?

I like the Doors but I love the Velvets. Doors were only good when Jim got bloated and gross and got it into his head he could sing the blues. Of the four major Velvets albums, three have been my favorite at various times over the years, so Velvets in a landslide – one of the greatest American bands of all time.

b) Bob Dylan or Neil Young

Impossible. Sorry. Bob is the single most important songwriter of all time, but Neil is probably my greatest inspiration. Too close to call.

c) The Sex Pistols or the Clash?

Clash. Don’t dig the Pistols at all.

2) What has been your personal highlight of 2011?

Hopscotch festival, Raleigh NC.

3) What was your low point of the year?

Having to finally part with my beloved 1987 Dodge Dakota, aka “The BLT”

4) You can give one single album from 2011 to just one person for Christmas. What would you buy and who for?

Tim Hecker, Ravedeath 1972, for my beautiful wife, who loves all things melancholy, droney, and fucked up (in that order). 

5) Give us between two and five songs from 2011 that you’d recommend as the best of the year.

Cass McCombs – “County Line,” Cass McCombs – “To Every Man His Chimera,” Destroyer – “The Laziest River,” Chasing Voices – “Acidbathory,” Charalambides – “Into The Earth”

6) Do you have a favourite Christmas Carol?

I’m partial to “Silver Bells” because I can play it on the piano, which is what I do, over and over, until someone tells me to stop. Sort of a Christmas present to myself.

7) Imagine you are snowed in and stuck in an isolated house in the woods for Christmas with no way out. Wolves and bears are prowling outside.You need to recommend the following:

A classic song to impress an ultra cool, know-it-all, teenager

“She Turns My Radio On” by Jim Ford

A song to terrify Grandma

Anything from the new Rwake album (which rules)

A traditional song to help send Grandad to sleep

“Paper Moon”

A song for someone just waking from a five-year coma

Something by Bill Callahan

A book to frighten the children

Hammer Of The Gods

An unforgettable film to watch

Jacob’s Ladder

8) What is top of your Christmas list this year? Why?

I need a new tape deck, specifically one that records to a flash drive. I’m deluged with noise tapes, Grateful Dead bootlegs, and irreplaceable Wooden Wand demos I need to convert. I also like listening to tapes and I currently don’t have a tape player. I also really want moccasins. 

9) What is the worst Christmas present you’ve ever given and/or ever received?

I’ve never received anything too awful, it’s the thought that counts. I bought my mom a French press that she has never once used, so I guess that was a bad gift. She couldn’t figure it out.

10) Will you be making a New Year Resolution? If so can you share it and will you keep it? What is the stupidest New Year resolution you’ve ever made?

For the past five years I have made the same resolution – to talk less. Especially to strangers. I have never kept this resolution. This year’s one I plan to keep though – I plan to stop listening to music on a computer, through laptop speakers. No exceptions. 

11) Imagine you’re headlining a Christmas Concert at your favourite venue. You can share the stage with three other artists or bands (past or present) for the final encore of the night. Who would they be and what would you play?

Oooh, good question. It’d be me, Neil Hagerty, Robert Nighthawk and Tetuzi Akiyama, and we’d play “Peg” by Steely Dan, my all time favorite song. That would probably sound awful but it sure would be fun.

12) Can you write us a Christmas themed limerick?

Christmas is usually a bummer

Every year the commercials get dumber

I’d like to sleep through it

And someday I’ll do it

And say “see you dumb fucks in the summer.”

Buy Wooden Wand releases here.

Download Wooden Wand – Winter In Kentucky mp3 (from Briarwood)

Download Wooden Wand – Big Mouth USA mp3 (from Briarwood)

Download Wooden Wand – Bones For Doctor Swah mp3 (from Archives Vol 3)

Download Wooden Wand – Nails And Spikes mp3 (from Archives Vol 3)

Download Wooden Wand – I Wouldn’t Do That mp3 (from Born Bad)

Download Wooden Wand – Uncle Bill mp3 (from Wither Thou Goest, Cretin?)

Download Wooden Wand – The Fly mp3 (from Wither Thou Goest, Cretin?)

Tomorrow: Tom Williams & The Boat

Previously: Lovely Eggs (here), Twilight Hotel (here), Grass House (here), Hurray For The Riff Raff (here),Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks (here), Ohioan (here)

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