We Are Wombat

It’s pretty hard not to have fun at a We Are Wombat show. Everyone may seem a decade younger than you — and they very well may be — but after a couple minutes with this Southeast Texas band, you’ll feel a decade younger, too.
I caught a Wombat show recently and the energy was ample, to say the least.

“This next song is about getting drunk,” lead singer Kyle Clemmons proclaimed just before the band launched into a foot-stompin’ train beat ditty with banjo and trumpet solos and punk-tinged vocals — this band has a sound that is hard to quantify with standard genre monikers. Or any words at all, for that matter.

Throughout the course of Wombat’s set, things went from bluesy rock to country punk to a pleasant waltz with a beautiful, ferocious breakdown in the middle. All of these sounds and influences combined will make for what I imagine to be a very fun party this weekend, when We Are Wombat will release its new album with a throwdown at Tequila Rok.

I asked a few questions to banjo player and vocalist Zack Cherry — who I first met playing banjo in an alley behind Whiskey River a couple years ago — about this peculiar hometown project and what you can expect to hear at the album release this weekend.

Q You guys have a pretty eclectic sound that’s kind of hard to pinpoint. If you had to describe it to someone using only three words, what would they be?

A Bouncy, folky fun.

Q How and when did We Are Wombat come together, initially?

A It started out as a joke about two years ago. Kyle and former member Brian Piggott decided to start a rumor about a band that was forming called We Are Wombat. For about six months the name was being spread around Nederland about a band that didn’t exist.

After six months, one day I got drunk and bought a banjo. I showed up to our friend’s house where the two of them were hanging out that day. From that point on, We Are Wombat was a reality.

Q Tell me about the new album you’re releasing this weekend at Tequila Rok.

A The album is entitled To All The Flora And All The Fauna. It is a split personality between my style and Kyle’s. My take on the album is the darker situations we cross in life that we could never fathom could be a reality until we meet that situation.
Kyle’s songs are more about the struggle with things you can agree and disagree with, and learning which side you fall into — thee music is satirically upbeat to signify the enlightenment on the situation.

There are a few songs that were a total collaboration lyrically, where we mix and match our views, making the songs more relatable for everyone. Each individual part of the songs were written by the musicians who play them. That is most likely the reason people (including us) have a hard time fitting us into a genre.

Q Are there any bands out there that you consider influences for We Are Wombat?
A Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids, the White Stripes and Mimicking Birds. A little Manchester Orchestra on the melodies and tone and Neutral Milk Hotel-sounding brass.

WE ARE WOMBAT CD RELEASE WITH SILAS FEEMSTER, OCTOPOODLE AND SPHYNX
When: Doors at 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Tequila Rok on Crockett Street
Cost: $5

- cat5 Magazine (thecat5.com)

It’s pretty hard not to have fun at a We Are Wombat show. Everyone may seem a decade younger than you — and they very well may be — but after a couple minutes with this Southeast Texas band, you’ll feel a decade younger, too.
I caught a Wombat show recently and the energy was ample, to say the least.

“This next song is about getting drunk,” lead singer Kyle Clemmons proclaimed just before the band launched into a foot-stompin’ train beat ditty with banjo and trumpet solos and punk-tinged vocals — this band has a sound that is hard to quantify with standard genre monikers. Or any words at all, for that matter.

Throughout the course of Wombat’s set, things went from bluesy rock to country punk to a pleasant waltz with a beautiful, ferocious breakdown in the middle. All of these sounds and influences combined will make for what I imagine to be a very fun party this weekend, when We Are Wombat will release its new album with a throwdown at Tequila Rok.

I asked a few questions to banjo player and vocalist Zack Cherry — who I first met playing banjo in an alley behind Whiskey River a couple years ago — about this peculiar hometown project and what you can expect to hear at the album release this weekend.

Q You guys have a pretty eclectic sound that’s kind of hard to pinpoint. If you had to describe it to someone using only three words, what would they be?

A Bouncy, folky fun.

Q How and when did We Are Wombat come together, initially?

A It started out as a joke about two years ago. Kyle and former member Brian Piggott decided to start a rumor about a band that was forming called We Are Wombat. For about six months the name was being spread around Nederland about a band that didn’t exist.

After six months, one day I got drunk and bought a banjo. I showed up to our friend’s house where the two of them were hanging out that day. From that point on, We Are Wombat was a reality.

Q Tell me about the new album you’re releasing this weekend at Tequila Rok.

A The album is entitled To All The Flora And All The Fauna. It is a split personality between my style and Kyle’s. My take on the album is the darker situations we cross in life that we could never fathom could be a reality until we meet that situation.
Kyle’s songs are more about the struggle with things you can agree and disagree with, and learning which side you fall into — thee music is satirically upbeat to signify the enlightenment on the situation.

There are a few songs that were a total collaboration lyrically, where we mix and match our views, making the songs more relatable for everyone. Each individual part of the songs were written by the musicians who play them. That is most likely the reason people (including us) have a hard time fitting us into a genre.

Q Are there any bands out there that you consider influences for We Are Wombat?
A Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids, the White Stripes and Mimicking Birds. A little Manchester Orchestra on the melodies and tone and Neutral Milk Hotel-sounding brass.

WE ARE WOMBAT CD RELEASE WITH SILAS FEEMSTER, OCTOPOODLE AND SPHYNX
When: Doors at 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Tequila Rok on Crockett Street
Cost: $5

- cat5 Magazine (thecat5.com)

My absolute favorite kind of music is stuff that isn't in any way goth, but sounds like it should be. Especially if it leans towards the country or blues end of the spectrum. Part of it is because I really think the next evolution of goth with be a more stripped down, acoustic thing, but it's more because I listened to Garth Brooks' "The Thunder Rolls" on an endless loop as a child and that kind of brain damage doesn't heal no matter how much you drink.

Fight cell death with cell death. I've always said that.

So let's look at my new best friends, We Are Wombat. Someone get the True Blood people on the phone and call their mothers slatterns until they agree to put "Delzo Spells" in Season 6.

It's the kind of tune you just know someone will eventually overdose while listening to, all delta blues guitar lines and talk of falling down the rabbit hole. They say every man can ascend to the arms of the Lord, but I postulate that you can tell the irrevocably damned by the tone of a tune. We Are Wombat is going straight to hell in a blaze of dark glory.

But that name...


We. Are. Wombat... We. Are. Fucking. Wombat. That is one of the most ridiculous names that I have ever come across in the course of this column. Holy McMoly, a wombat is an endangered, fat-bottomed rodent that exists solely to teach kids the letter W. How on Earth am I supposed to make word-love over a band's black majesty when they insist on calling themselves We Are Wombat?

There had to be something deeper behind it than that. I got in touch with keyboardist and singer Ryan Schulze to see if there was something, anything that would help me save face here.

"It all started as a joke," says Schulze, a bit unnecessarily. "I had a rent house three years ago that our friends would all hangout at. One day Zack [Cherry, banjo] came over with a brand-new banjo and Kyle [Clemmons, guitar] said 'Woah....We Are Wombat.'

"And ever since then Wombat has been steady doin' its thang," Schulze continues. "To me We Are Wombat is a blanket for everything, whether everything wants to be blanketed or not. It's under that damn blanket. We are, you are and your mom is Wombat."

By the granny panties of Taylor Swift, I think someone finally inflicted enough pain on my brain to drive Garth out. You don't just walk in and say, "We are wombat." That is not a normal course of action. That's what a crazy person says before they start strangling you for "judging them with your eyes." This story makes me want to randomly start auditioning for bands, walk in and spout a nonsequitur, then just leave and wait to see if they start calling themselves that.

"Hi, here for the audition?"
"They have laid poor Jesse in his grave."


Two months later, "Poor Jesse in His Grave" debuts at Fitz's, and I, the Wandering Name-Nut, move on to inspire another.

No, there had to be more, though I couldn't conceive of what it was and I'm actively hallucinating while I write this, Mr. Tonberry. Let's look at the wombat, and what it symbolizes.

Not much, as it appears no one but Schulze and company have taken the animal as their herald. The most standout fact seems to be the big-butt thing I mentioned. A wombat's ass is like Wu-Tang Clan; Nothin' to fuck with. It's made of tough cartilage so that if, say, a Tasmanian devil tries to follow it into its den they blunt their teeth on the wombat's magnificent J-Lo hindquarters.

If that doesn't work, the wombat with back that ass up under the pursuer's head, and use it to pin their skull to the tunnel ceiling while donkey-kicking it to death.

There's beauty in the stupidest parts of nature, and I asked Schulze how we could be more wombat-like.

"Well wombats poop in cube shape," says Schulze, proving that at least he did his homework. "You could try pooping in cubes, or you could make good vibes and hip-hop. There really isn't enough, of any option, in this world."

What was the name of that song? Something about thunder, wasn't it?

FINAL DEFINITION

We Are Wombat (n) 1. Goth, but not, but good. 2. Cube-shaped poop. 3. An unbitable ass.


We Are Wombat plays Friday June 14 at Avant Garden with The Manichean, B.E. Godfrey, and Austin Smith.

Jef With One F is a recovering rock star taking it one day at a time. You can read about his adventures in The Bible Spelled Backwards or connect with him on Facebook.
- Houstonpress.com

My absolute favorite kind of music is stuff that isn't in any way goth, but sounds like it should be. Especially if it leans towards the country or blues end of the spectrum. Part of it is because I really think the next evolution of goth with be a more stripped down, acoustic thing, but it's more because I listened to Garth Brooks' "The Thunder Rolls" on an endless loop as a child and that kind of brain damage doesn't heal no matter how much you drink.

Fight cell death with cell death. I've always said that.

So let's look at my new best friends, We Are Wombat. Someone get the True Blood people on the phone and call their mothers slatterns until they agree to put "Delzo Spells" in Season 6.

It's the kind of tune you just know someone will eventually overdose while listening to, all delta blues guitar lines and talk of falling down the rabbit hole. They say every man can ascend to the arms of the Lord, but I postulate that you can tell the irrevocably damned by the tone of a tune. We Are Wombat is going straight to hell in a blaze of dark glory.

But that name...


We. Are. Wombat... We. Are. Fucking. Wombat. That is one of the most ridiculous names that I have ever come across in the course of this column. Holy McMoly, a wombat is an endangered, fat-bottomed rodent that exists solely to teach kids the letter W. How on Earth am I supposed to make word-love over a band's black majesty when they insist on calling themselves We Are Wombat?

There had to be something deeper behind it than that. I got in touch with keyboardist and singer Ryan Schulze to see if there was something, anything that would help me save face here.

"It all started as a joke," says Schulze, a bit unnecessarily. "I had a rent house three years ago that our friends would all hangout at. One day Zack [Cherry, banjo] came over with a brand-new banjo and Kyle [Clemmons, guitar] said 'Woah....We Are Wombat.'

"And ever since then Wombat has been steady doin' its thang," Schulze continues. "To me We Are Wombat is a blanket for everything, whether everything wants to be blanketed or not. It's under that damn blanket. We are, you are and your mom is Wombat."

By the granny panties of Taylor Swift, I think someone finally inflicted enough pain on my brain to drive Garth out. You don't just walk in and say, "We are wombat." That is not a normal course of action. That's what a crazy person says before they start strangling you for "judging them with your eyes." This story makes me want to randomly start auditioning for bands, walk in and spout a nonsequitur, then just leave and wait to see if they start calling themselves that.

"Hi, here for the audition?"
"They have laid poor Jesse in his grave."


Two months later, "Poor Jesse in His Grave" debuts at Fitz's, and I, the Wandering Name-Nut, move on to inspire another.

No, there had to be more, though I couldn't conceive of what it was and I'm actively hallucinating while I write this, Mr. Tonberry. Let's look at the wombat, and what it symbolizes.

Not much, as it appears no one but Schulze and company have taken the animal as their herald. The most standout fact seems to be the big-butt thing I mentioned. A wombat's ass is like Wu-Tang Clan; Nothin' to fuck with. It's made of tough cartilage so that if, say, a Tasmanian devil tries to follow it into its den they blunt their teeth on the wombat's magnificent J-Lo hindquarters.

If that doesn't work, the wombat with back that ass up under the pursuer's head, and use it to pin their skull to the tunnel ceiling while donkey-kicking it to death.

There's beauty in the stupidest parts of nature, and I asked Schulze how we could be more wombat-like.

"Well wombats poop in cube shape," says Schulze, proving that at least he did his homework. "You could try pooping in cubes, or you could make good vibes and hip-hop. There really isn't enough, of any option, in this world."

What was the name of that song? Something about thunder, wasn't it?

FINAL DEFINITION

We Are Wombat (n) 1. Goth, but not, but good. 2. Cube-shaped poop. 3. An unbitable ass.


We Are Wombat plays Friday June 14 at Avant Garden with The Manichean, B.E. Godfrey, and Austin Smith.

Jef With One F is a recovering rock star taking it one day at a time. You can read about his adventures in The Bible Spelled Backwards or connect with him on Facebook.
- Houstonpress.com