Wooden Nickle
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Wooden Nickle

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"9.7.05"

Wooden Nickle is a self-described "laptop garage rock" band, which might sound like a strangely contradictory term until you hear the Rose City quartet's unique and compelling blend of electronica and traditional garage-rock guitar bashing. Vocalist-guitarist Matt Boney whispers and wails like a more sinister Lou Barlow while Kyle Delamarter's laptop loops and Yascha Noonberg's live drums merge without sounding gimmicky or contrived. DAVE CLIFFORD. - willamette week


"8.17.06"


8.17.06
the portland mercury
Portland's Wooden Nickle [sic] crafts this crazy-awesome meld of rustic, damaged folk with solid, stoney classic rock. It's a sweet mix. a li'l electronic action in there, handclaps, flute, cello, toy instruments, you name it, all sorts of cool shit. - the portland mercury


"3.15.07"

Wooden Nickle's ghostly digital junkyard folk makes my skin crawl with the fear that they write their lyrics with a Quija board.
- the portland mercury


"2.16.06"

WOW!
Wooden Nickle
AT DUNES

PDX'S Wooden Nickle call their stuff "laptop garage" which means something like electronic ghosts haunting over weedy vocals, handclaps, and guitars that riff tough as motorcycle mufflers�but never get all that loud. w/Dolorean
- the portland mercury


"2.15.06"

[LOCAL INDIE] The last in Dolorean's lineup of three free shows at Dunes, this one also features fellow Portlanders Wooden Nickle. Self-described "laptop garage rock," Wooden Nickle—less a few experimental blips and beeps—sounds more or less like any typical indie-rock startup. With half-sung, half-spoken lyrics over pretty standard rock orchestration, Wooden Nickle is onto something that, though not terribly original, is refreshingly simple. AMY MCCULLOUGH. Dunes. 9:30 pm. Free. 21+. - willamette week


Discography

We were included on Portland's Failing Records' Vol 2 and 4 compilation

Photos

Bio

The thing about a good secret is the longer you keep it the more it sweetens; it simmers and gestates and grows to be this new thing, wholly BETTER than before. Wooden Nickle is a Portland band, and Portland bands are blowing up all over the place, true. But you probably haven’t heard these guys. They’ve been keepin’ it on the DL, staying low-key and mysterious, and hiding their treasures under a bushel while they mature into something wild and ecstatic.

So now, 11 years after their first nascent jams (in a barn in central Missouri) Wooden Nickle is ready to show their hand. They’ve got all these songs they’ve been cooking up, grilling the right way, letting the magic settle in deep. Their debut record is swimming in amniotic fluid as we speak, and will be born sometime this fall. A few songs have already been hatched, and a bunch of those can be witnessed live and righteous on their summer tour (see dates below).

A preview then: sneak-peeks show the boys rolling like some kind of mutant avant-country Velvet Underground; big, majestic Crazy Horse/punk Dylan stompers; puddles of freaky abstract psychedelia oozing through the cracks; creaky, abandoned-sounding folk and epic electro-swamp boogie—right up there with Castanets, Six Organs, and the White Album’s weirder cuts. (Look up “Wooden Nickle guitar playing, circa summer 2007” in the Encyclopedia of Universal Cosmic Truth and it’ll say something like: "Riffs snap like baby rattlesnakes … chicken-scratch pickin’ … ‘holy crap dude!’ says audience member … enraptured string-bending … composure = totally lost … distortion heaven … livin’ it.")

Live, singer/guitarist Matt Boney, drummer Chris Hutton, and guitarist/laptopist/singer Jeff Simmons do all this and more. “More” meaning: They let it BLEED. “More” meaning: Matt’s guitar screams out feedback like an eagle while new ground is won and taken on the sweaty, blistering rock ’n’ roll battlegrounds; Hank Williams homage is done as howling, high plains indierock. The quiet parts are hauntingly engaging; the loud parts feel like pure open-road FREEDOM. It’s a spirited, crowded, authentic burst of energy, passionate intent, and love for each other, the crowd, and the honest soul of music.

As says Simmons, the two key elements here are integrity and truth. And when both feel this good, and cry out this loud, you’ll be glad the secret’s now busted wide open, bursting like a firecracker for the whole world to see.

CONTACT: WOODENNICKLE@MAC.COM