Wood Chickens are a Madison, WI three-piece band that play a raucous mixture of punk and country that you may or may not know as cow punk. Though, they have some added elements of craziness and debauchery that lead them to refer to what they’re doing as acid-barn. They’re a hard working group that is no stranger to DIY ethic and you can find them on the road quite a bit. This Thursday, they make a return to Winona to play at Broken World Records with locals Godeater.
The Interview Part:
It’s really encouraging to see a healthy and supportive DIY scene blossoming across the country
What is acid barn?
Acid Barn is a made-up genre label we sometimes use to describe our sound. A friend once told us our music sounds like “doing acid in a barn,” which is probably not too far off from some of the events that may or may not have happened during the formative years of the band.
So, you’ve been on the road since like the end of September for your Psychedelic Rodeo Tour, right? Tell me about the triumphs and tragedies.
Yes, we just returned from the month-long Psychedelic Rodeo Tour and are gearing up to hit the road again in a few days. We reconnected with some good friends on the road and made many new ones. That’s the best part of tour to me. Aside from that, we played a great mix of venues, such as a hotel martini lounge in South Dakota, a brewing company out in the middle of the beautiful desert in Taos, New Mexico, and some fantastic DIY venues in Texas. It’s really encouraging to see a healthy and supportive DIY scene blossoming across the country. Thankfully, there were no major tragedies and we all came back alive. I hope to make that a regular thing.
Can you tell me a few of your favorite venues to play?
In Madison, Mickey’s Tavern is our stompin’ ground. Something about playing on the floor right next to the entrance at eye-level with the audience makes it much easier to absorb people into our weird little universe. There are also some great DIY venues in town that are working hard to keep the scene alive. The Lift in Dubuque, IA is a fun place to play. It kind of feels like a little cave. We love playing Disastr House in Rockford, IL. A house venue that’s been around for that long is definitely doing something right.
Why did the wood chicken cross the road to get to the sheep?
Well Todd, many different theories exist as to why the wood chicken crossed the road to join the sheep on the other side. In our beliefs, this happened on March 26, 2006 and they were both catching a bus to attend Buck Owens’ last performance ever in Bakersfield, California, unaware that Buck would die peacefully in his sleep that night after eating a chicken-fried steak dinner.
Oh, I didn’t realize the story had so many ins and outs. I was just thinking–wooden ewe?
What the hell is the stumpf fiddle and why does your band have one?
A stumpf fiddle is sort of a hillbilly percussion instrument. It’s essentially a stick with various auxiliary percussion instruments attached to it, such as a cowbell, wood block, bell, and a pair of springs (for a washboard-like effect). It goes by a plethora of names and has deep roots in American and English music. For our first tour in April, The Griff and I were planning on doing a 2-piece acoustic act, but Justin J. Johnson (who would later become our full-time drummer) wanted to come along and bring this hillbilly monstrosity on the road. Eventually, we reached the consensus of “Sure, why the hell not?” The inconvenience of constantly having to repair and rebuild the stumpf fiddle has lead us to using it less, but we still bring it out for acoustic sets from time to time.
You played Winona back in August and did both Broken World Records and Cream Corn Wrestling at Latsch. How was that and did you guys wrestle?
Cream Corn Wrestling on Latsch Island was a wonderful experience! We had a great time playing to the spectators and participants of the event, although my corn-related puns fell flat and at one point The Griff was (unintentionally) hit in the face by a frisbee. We didn’t enter the cream corn pit, but we definitely felt the warm, creamy, welcoming atmosphere for our first show in Winona. We shared the stage with the fine folks from Wake Up Bedhead at the wrestling tournament and the after party at Broken World Records.
Finally, do you like wood or chickens more?
Taste-wise, I prefer chickens, but if I were to build a structure to raise these chickens in, wood would be my material of choice. Functionality, ya see?
The Details:
What: Wood Chickens and Godeater
When: Thursday, November 5th at 9pm
Where: Broken World Records
Tickets: no cover