Tag Archives: Mad Wow

Remembering Claire Randall ’12

claire-randall

The past few days have been laden with sadness for many in the greater Wesleyan community. Over the weekend, news of the passing of Claire Randall ’12 came to us and the rest of the Wesleyan community. Claire lost her life in an act of gun violence last Thursday. Rather than repost details of her death, we wanted to include a few things to remember her by.

Claire grew up in Rhode Island where she attended Mt. Hope High School. She was valedictorian of her high school class and graduated from Wesleyan with a major in Music, focusing in ethnomusicology and jazz studies. At Wes, she was a member of New Group and she starred in a mockumentary web series called WANNABES. During her time at Wes, she was also part of a 14-piece band called Mad Wow. After graduation, she joined alumni artists Jess Best [’14] and Trot Fox as a vocalist. She also worked in New York City for Resonant Motion, a nonprofit that focused on facilitating the creation of music that “has a profound capacity to inspire people towards personal growth, strength and transformation and to and educate people about issues important to their world.”

Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of knowing Claire, but I truly wish I had. Here are a few things Claire gave to the world in her short time here:

MAD?! Wow……..

Did Jake Schofield ’12 contaminate his finger with his own feces, then somehow move it to Isaac Silk ’14’s oral cavity? Because both seem to have Mad Wow Disease. [boos, hisses] What I mean is that they both sent us event posts for tonight! We’ll go in order of descending class year—here’s Silky Smooth’s:

WARNING: Mad Wow disease has returned to campus. Anyone worried about catching the infectious mo-town soul groove, and feeling the uncontrollable urge to dance for hours straight, should certainly not come to ALPHA DELT tonight at 9:30.

Side Effects: Garth Taylor, dancing, sweatiness, and brain explosions.

Opener: Drummers of Peace and Equality (DOPE), featuring Bill Carbone

Who: Mad Wow, DOPE
What: Concert
Where: Alpha Delt
When: Tonight, 9:30
Why
How
Facebook
Not satisfied? Ass. Click through for “Ol’ Stromboli” Schofield’s version:

Jared Paul ’11 Wants To Record You

Wesleying has received an exclusive plea from Jared Paul ’11, Wesleyan’s own recording engineer alumni extraordinaire. Today Paul spends his days recording err’one from Mad Wow to Lioness (who??) in Brooklyn and his nights floating through clouds with a boombox and Gibson SG.

You may remember Paul from his debut LP Ubeatquitous, which esteemed colleague A-Batte likened to “Obama-sipping-whiskey-with-dinosaurs.” If that descriptor grabs your fancy, consider signing up to be his next recording victim; details appear below:

I’m a Class of ’11 grad working as a freelance audio engineer and producer. Although I’ve done the whole graduate-and-move-to-Brooklyn thing, I am trying to keep recording Wes people as often as possible! Among the Wes artists I’ve recorded and mixed projects for in the past year are Mel Hsu ’13, Mad Wow, Josh Smith ’11, Fly Machine,The New Group, Grand Father, Lioness, and The Rooks.  Some samples are here.  If you like what you hear, consider having me record your next project!

Get Rooks Or Die Trying: Campus Funk Act Plots Mini-Tour

The Rooks, everyone’s favorite on-campus intergalactic funk sensation, are going on tour! Sort of. The post-Mad Wow outfit is embarking on a mini-tour of sorts through the northeast this week (they might snag more exclusive concert footage at these shows), and frontman Garth Taylor ’12 has the details. (As always, The Rooks include Garth Taylor ’12, Nate Mondschein ’12, Spencer Hattendorf ’12, Graham Richman ’11, Louis Russo ’11, and Gabe Gordon ’11.)

NEW YORK CITAAAAY:

  • Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012
  • Place: Sullivan Hall, New York, NY.
  • Time: 8 PM
  • Tickets? Tickets $10 at the door or can be reserved online.
  • Facebook link: !!!!!

Never Mind the Password Reset Notification, Here’s The Rooks

“We want to make you dance harder than ever before, then dim the lights and grab the one you love.”

Remember Mad Wow? Josh Smith & the Concert G’s? Fly Machine?

The great godfathers of Wesleyan funk: gone but not forgotten? Earlier this month we posted about a new Wesleyan musical project, The Rooks, formed out of the ashes of past Wes funk greats and led by mastermind Garth Taylor ’12. (Apparently some mysterious Facebook glitch prevented the band members from inviting their friends to the page, so take pity and like them here.)

The Rooks are embarking on an ambitious regiment of producing a new video of cover songs and originals every week or so—impressive, when you consider that half the members have already graduated. Look up (up there! above you!) for the band’s acoustic cover of Beyonce’s “1 + 1,” look below for “Sleepwalking” (an original), voyage over here to scope out the band’s YouTube channel,  click here for past Wesleying coverage, and scroll on for an exclusive interview with Taylor and the rest of The Rooks.

Mad Wow Releases New EP, Rawks Tent Party

Mad Wow, the celebrated soul/funk/jazz/whatever ensemble whose recent final show blowout party resulted in a mass musical parade outside Beckham last month, has a new four-track EP out. Spoiler alert: it’s prtttty funky! I recommend “You’re Gonna Lose Me” (not to be confused with “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” or “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” or “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which Mad Wow should totally consider covering on its massive 2021 world tour reunion). Name Your Price Dot Bandcamp Dot Com!

Speaking of reunions, Mad Wow’s apparently not dead after all. The group rose from the dead this past Saturday night to rock Reunion & Commencement weekend’s raucous Tent Party (see: Michael Roth gettin’ jiggy with it, 2010). Here’s “Fuck You”:

Post-Wordsmith/MadWow Street Parade Pix & Vid

So, back on Sunday I posted a submission call for pictures and videos on the massive impromptu after-party walkabout thing that followed  WordSmith & the Concert G’s and Mad Wow‘s last show at Wesleyan. Since then we’ve received a couple of pictures from Rachel Pincus ’13 and Ally Bernstein ’13, as well as a really short and shaky video clip from former ACB-mogul and current big daddy Peter Frank ’12 that has a certain Bigfoot/Cloverfield quality to it. The pictures can be viewed at the mosaic at the bottom, and the video can be found after the jump.

It was fun partyin’ with you folks, Wes-kids. We should do this shit again some time.

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Callin’ Fo Yo Cameras: Were you there last night?

Old-school pic of Mad Wow, cuz' we got no new-school pics.

So, last night staple Wes-bands Mad Wow and WordSmith & the Concert G’s played their last show ever at Beckham Hall. (Until some sort of reunion occurs, I would expect.) And heck, it was pretty damn great.

But there was this massive impromptu after-party walkabout thing that happened after that, you see, where a good portion of the horn section took to the streets of Wesleyan blarin’ out tunes in Mardi Gras-esque fashion. Weskids were dancin’ up and down the street, mobs were mobbin’, and PSafe cars passed by probably quite unsure as to whether the whole thing was an infraction of school regulations or not.

And it was fun, man. It was so fun A-Batte punched me in the face without knowing it, and I didn’t know it ’til I woke up this morning with a strange lump on my left cheek.

But here’s the problem: In all that grand revelry, my Wesleying associates and I didn’t manage to snap any pictures, videos, or any sort of documentation of this wild, wild thing. And we’d like very much to digitally immortalize that mobile street party, ya know?

So if you were there, at that show, at that party, and if you have pictures or videos or some sort of chalk etching of it all that you’d like to share, do send us a copy over at staff(at)wesleying(dot)org. If you’d like the transfer to be simpler, you can arrange a super-duper-cool drop off with us. Email us and we’ll figure out something. We can’t give you cash or anything, but we can give you our love.

Cheers!

Mad Wow at ADP (3/26/11)

Last night, Saturday, March 26, 2011, Mad Wow, a large student band playing music primarily written by Gabe Gordon ’11 and Spencer Hattendorf ’12, played their second-to-last show at Wesleyan. The band, described as a “p-funk and soul band” by The Argus, played to a packed crowd in Alpha Delt’s living room. Joining the horn section this semester is Isaac Silk ’14, trombone, who played last night and will be playing in the rest of their shows for the semester. Especially invigorating was the band’s enthusiastic cover of “I Want You Back.” The band’s last show at Wesleyan will be on Saturday, April 23, where they will be joined by Wordsmith at Beckham Hall, for free. For this last show, Mad Wow will include a string section. For more about The Taste and pictures from the concert, read past the jump.

Safe Sexfest 2010: Sexy Can I

The culmination of SAFE SEXFEST 2010! ASHA hopes that this concert/dance/sexy extravaganza will be one for the ages. What better way to culminate a SEXFEST than by GETTING DOWN…after an amazing concert! (Consensually and with protection, obviously).

With a killer lineup of some of the hottest campus acts, this will literally BLOW your mind (and possibly other parts of your body that shall remain nameless, just as long as you’ve got a dental dam).

10pm-11 pm: 2 Risky Fresh DJs
11pm-12am: MAD WOW
12am-1am: Darkslope & Paradise StomP
1am-2am: 3 Risky Fresh DJs

So come to Psi U TONIGHT. ALL PROCEEDS GO TO LOCAL SEXUAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS!

When: TONIGHT, FRIDAY 11/12 10:00PM-2:00AM
Where: Psi U
Cost: $3 in Usdan at lunch and dinner, $4 at the door
Facebook event

P.S: Don’t worry about bringing condoms out for the night…we’ve got you covered.