hey friends,

hello friends!!

hello friends!!

we are super excited about our tour that starts next week!! we hope that you can come see us when we're in your town and all... we promise we're pretty good and that it will be a lot of fun. below are our tour dates and all that. tell all your good buddies!!

3/19 - Atlanta, GA - The Metropolitan Warehouses with Futureshock and the Back Pockets!

3/20/09 - Athens, GA - The Flicker Theater - super late night party with preschool and witches!! starts at midnight!

3/21/09 - Asheville, NC - root bar number one with buffalo!!

3/22/09 - Greensboro, NC - The Greenleaf at Guilford College with the Eggs!, Isla Brown, and more!!

3/23/09 - Richmond, VA - Nara Sushi with Pedals on our Pirate Ships, Arise Sweet Donkey, and Dull!!

3/24/09 - Baltimore, MD - Charm City Arts Space with Red Phone Dispatch, and Battle!!

3/25/09 - Philly, PA - The Wail with Dangerous Ponies, Dave End,  the armchairs, dragonzord, and zinc ponie!!

3/26/09 - Ridgewood/Queens, NY - Hi 5 Bar with the Fellow Project, Letters to the moon, and more!! (jason anderson is not playing this show anymore, but he is playing that night at piano's in manhattan)

3/27/09 - Brooklyn, NY - The Brooklyn Tea Party with Brook Pridemore and the valley cubs, Elizabeth Devlin, and more!!

3/28/09 - Amherst/Northampton, MA - Hampshire College at the Tavern with Jason Anderson and more!!

These are all going to be awesome shows!! you should come and say hello and introduce yourself to us!! we'll be looking for places to crash and all that as well, so let us know if you can help out.... we'll have our 7" with us as well.... there are only a few copies left, so you should grab one.

Pine magazine is going to be having us do a tour blog as part of their online magazine, so you can check that out too.. we'll have a link to it on our myspace page!! it will have great stories and awesome pictures!!

we love you guys!!  fuck yeah!! check back for updated information on all the shows!

xo
the wild

hello friends... i recently did an interview about art and social change and how the Obama administration will have an impact on the arts in our country.... you can check it out here... http://rusty.pine-magazine.com/site/article/1650.

below is the transcript:

The artist and social change

An interview with the Wild's (and WonderRoot's) Witt Wisebram

By Pine Magazine Staff
posted: Tuesday, 06 January 2009

As one of the co-founders of nonprofit arts organization WonderRoot, Wisebram has helped fuse art and social change, a marriage that not only fuels creativity but also inspires those who might otherwise find themselves marginalized instead to immerse themselves in much needed cultural and political change.

As guitarist and vocalist for the Wild, Wisebram puts his money where his mouth is by reaching out to audiences directly from the stage with lyrics that often touch upon social issues.

The Wild is playing the Pine-sponsored pre-inauguration party at the Star Bar Thursday, 08 January. We asked him a few questions about his thoughts on how the upcoming Washington regime change will affect the arts.

Holly Lang/Pine Magazine: How do you feel the political atmosphere affects music?

Witt Wisebraum/The Wild: The political climate of any certain period in history has had an affect on the art and music of that period. It seems like there are artists and musicians that create for the sake of creation (art for arts sake) and there are those that create out of the desire to have their work have an impact on the communities with which they interact (art for societies' sake).

For the past few years, it seems like the artist has become even more marginalized from society as a whole, in part due to the political climate, which makes it even harder for artists to have an impact on society. It seems like when it comes to Obama that people feel more personally connected to politics, and I think that the more and more politics become entangled with the personal that even artists and musicians that make very personal art will find their work becoming more political. So I think we'll see more and more music and art that, while it may not be overtly political, is political in nature, whether it is about personal change, hope or new ideas as a result of the imminent political climate.

PM: Do you feel that the regime change in our executive office will affect creativity among us masses? What changes do you hope to see?

WW: Yeah! I really hope so. …When a society feels empowered by those that lead that society it can only lead to more comfort in creativity and in the creative process. I think people or societies sometimes are affected by the overall atmosphere that they exist in, including the artists. And for the last eight years or more, our society has been clouded by negativity, war and mistrust. With Obama, Who has already inspired and motivated a lot of people in our country and around the world, I think we'll see a more positive and hopeful atmosphere develop which will really change the amount of art being created, the type of art being created and the place that art and music hold in our society.

I really hope to see an arts and music culture develop that strives to nurture social awareness as an integral part of it. What better way to change the world than through the arts!? I hope that people will take the same feeling of empowerment and the whole "yes we can" ideal and create art and music that speak to that.

PM: For you, as both an artist and someone who helps facilitate the arts, what are your hopes and wishes for the next four years? Increased arts funding for public schools? More federal grants aimed at creative endeavors? What do you see as the most important right now?

WW: I would love to see all of those things happen. Public schools art programs definitely need help. I can't imagine what my life would be like or how horrible school would have been without the arts. Learning about art and creating art isn't just something that needs to be incorporated into school curriculum for the sake of teaching art skills, but it teaches people critical thought, which I think is almost more important than traditional 'school smarts.' It is one thing if people learn to understand the information they receive from those in charge and the media, but it is a much greater thing if people can then take that information and develop their own thoughts and ideas about it.

Obviously more federal money for the arts would be great, but a lot of time that type of money comes with a lot of red tape and limits. I think that the most important thing right now is that people start to feel that they do have an important voice, especially those in marginalized communities, and that as a society we find ways to encourage those voices.

I don't think it is something that will happen with more funding from the government for arts programs or from the 'top' at all, but it is something that will happen when people feel empowered and work together in a grassroots sort of way. We really can't rely on our government (even if it is better than it was before) to create the change that we want to see in our world, and I think art and music have the ability to bring people together in a way that no government ever could.

PM: During his campaign, a resurgence of sorts for US propaganda emerged as a political tool that has been credited with spurring some voters to make their trek to the polls. Do you feel this as Obama takes office and leads both the nation and world in what has been promised as a change, more artists will engage in this, and similar, propaganda to maintain what was a historical display of support for a US presidential candidate?

WW: I thought it was really amazing to see the type of art that was created in support of Obama. It was everywhere - from wheat-pastes on building walls to stencils on street signs to posters in punk-rock venues. Propaganda is still propaganda though. It is dangerous to support anyone, even Obama, because of a cool piece of art you saw.

The mantras of 'hope' and 'change' that surrounded Obama's election were exciting and motivating to most people and really did help him gain support amongst certain demographics but I think some people may not have gone as far into his policies and political goals as they should have because of the propaganda.

Obama is an icon. It is amazing! He is the first African-American president of a country that was founded on racism and slavery, and he deserves immense regard and praise, and so I do think that the type of iconographic art that was involved in his election will continue into his presidency, but I would like to see artists really create art that challenges Obama to stay true to his word and to address even more social and cultural issues than he already has.

Obama's presidency really is a chance for artists and musicians to begin to become an integral part of society again, a position they have lost more and more over the course of modern history.... and artists do have the most creative and best solutions to a lot of societies worst problems. Fuck yeah!!