Oklahoma City bands, Wondernaut and Less Love, collaborate to deliver rock music’s next big failure
(PRWEB) September 09, 2013 -- “If Fleetwood Mack and Sonic Youth had an ugly love child, it would sound a lot like the new album Paradigms In The Design.” – Mark King guitarist for Hinder
The Oklahoma City based indie label Lackpro Records is very proud to announce the release of the new joint effort album by the bands Wondernaut & Less Love titled Paradigms In The Design.
Oklahoma City is the largest small town in the world. If you are a musician on the scene, there is never more than one degree of separation from you and any other local musician. Along the same lines, if you would like to meet a musician from the OKC area, just go to any club on Western Avenue and chances are you will run into a member of The Starlight Mints, The Flaming Lips, All American Rejects, Evangelicals, Hinder or even occasionally Toby Keith. It was here among the Western-Avenue-Hipsters, begging for gigs, that the members of Less Love and Wondernaut first met.
The two groups have often worked side by side. In 2010 they released a promotional six song EP featuring three songs by both bands. The EP was an introduction to each group’s individual projects soon to follow. Wondernaut then put out two Eps and Less Love released their first LP. Now Less Love and Wondernaut have teamed up again to release a hard-hitting, collaborative effort: Paradigms In The Design.
In December 2012 the two bands made a decision to reduce cost, and resolve scheduling problems by sharing studio time. Each band would work on the other bands projects, but the intention was still to release two separate albums.
“We always had someone that couldn’t make it into the studio when we needed them to be there.” says Sky McCullough of Less Love. “I ran into Billy Gro [of Wondernaut] at Lackpro Studios and he mentioned he was having the same problem with his album. We decided that we could help each other out. Plus working together would just make the process more enjoyable.”
Billy Gro added, “At the time I was engineering an album for the band 3 Dates Later and trying to get my own album completed. When Sky brought it up, I liked the idea of working with Less Love because it would take some of the burden off of me and allow me to relax a bit more. It worked. I am really proud of the end results.”
McCullough and Gro got to work immediately. Writing and recording together, they soon scrapped the plan to do two individual releases. It became clear that the songs belonged together. Splitting the new album fifty-fifty, they recorded five songs by each band and three songs together.
The collaboration’s success is evident before getting even halfway through the album. Wondernaut’s mellow guitars and slow-burning emotion make a perfect foil to LESS LOVE’s alternately crunchy and poppy tracks. And while you could head-bop through the whole thing on a weekend drive, the sentiments are far from lighthearted.
“In these tracks there is no pointing the finger of blame without taking ownership for our own flaws. You may have done me wrong, but admittedly I kind of liked it. Do you think you could come back and do me wrong again?” – Chris Snyder of Less Love
Paradigms tempers heartache with humor, a sort of polite smile delivering terrible news: the love is gone, but at least we both know it. The album accomplishes much more than aesthetic compatibility: it highlights Oklahoma’s tradition of community and collaboration. It’s a state of solidarity.
When asked what will follow the album’s release, Sky responded “More of the same. We are just going to keep doing what we do. You ever notice that each “next big thing” never turns out to be a big thing? I think the White Stripes was the last “next big thing” to actually become a big thing. Our goal is to be the next big failure. As long as we get to keep making music, I will be happy failing every day of the week.”
Sandra Wilcox, Lackpro Records, http://www.lackpro.com, +1 (405) 219-0810, [email protected]
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