Wook

If you ever want to see a live band and go to a dance club at the same time, then Wook is the answer to that dilema. Like a disc jockey in the form of a live dance hall band, Wook uses real electric guitar and bass and amalgamates them with synth and both real and digital drums. Their heavy use of guitars lays out a strong instrumental groove that is periodically colored with vocal inserts, similar to Sound Tribe Sector Nine but with more emphasis on their guitar work. Long drawn out hypnotic jams like their influences Umphrey's McGee, Phish, and The Grateful Dead, as they fuse progressive rock with live electronics using Ableton Live. Composed of Jake Stottler (guitar/synth/vocals), Adam Lowe (guitar/vocals), Mike Kuerschner (bass/laptop), and Andrew Stark (drums), Wook just released their debut album, Glowstick Sidewalks, already carving their way through the Midwest with plans for expansion in 2013. - Found Magazine (The Music Initiative)

In addition to the normal stresses of student and “real world” life, the members of Madison jam/electronic band Wook balance an extended schedule of gigs and traveling, including their stint at the Majestic Theatre opening for Papadosio Friday.

Since settling into their current lineup approximately a year ago, they have been constantly working within the Midwest music scene. The start of their festival career happened by chance when guitarist and vocalist Jake Stottler met the promoter of the Grateful Garcia Gathering whilst on the Terrace. The festival is a small one held in middle Wisconsin, and is a “weird, hippie place,” according to the band.

“Someone had canceled the week before and we jumped on the chance to fill the slot,” bassist and laptop-operator Mike Kuerschner recalled. “From there we learned about other gigs through people and bands we’ve met. It’s tough in the beginning; a lot of emails and phone calls never get responses at that stage.”

Since two of Wook’s members are still students at UW-Madison and the other two have full-time jobs, the band must pack their summer schedule to the brim and strategically plan their school-year performances.

“We’ll play Thursday through Saturday night at the most with an errant weekday show here and there,” guitarist and vocalist Adam Lowe explained. “We wouldn’t string together a series of shows for a straight week. It definitely works around the school schedule.”

For example, looking forward on the calendar, the band will play a Thursday night in Iowa, drive back and attend class or work on Friday and return to Iowa for a Friday night show. The secret to their multi-tasking ability stems from several factors.

“We mostly use diligent driving and get in the car and go home as soon as the show is over,” Lowe said. “We do our fair share of partying in Madison but school has always been a blockage for doing things like that on the road.”

Kuerschner added, “It’s good to stay grounded and know that our education is important and we’re paying for it. You know, doing that instead of being hungover in Iowa somewhere.”

As for musical influences, the band covers a full spectrum, particularly in the jam band realm. They describe their collective interests as a mutt of sorts: Dave Matthews Band, Lotus and Umphreys McGee layered with electronic and DJ interests, among many others.

The crowd for a Wook show fluctuates depending on the time and place. At a particularly memorable Summer Camp set this past summer (the first slot on Friday morning), the band brought juice and donuts for their audience. On the flip side of the coin from buzzing festival sets, the band has played to nearly-empty rooms.

“We’ve played in Chicago to the sound guy and when he went out for a cigarette there was no one,” Kuerschner said. “But we’re well aware that it doesn’t do any good to lose your cool over things like that.”

This lighthearted attitude helps Wook navigate the ups and downs of band life, and they consider themselves “serious about their music but not about themselves.”

“The more you take things with a smile, the easier it is to get through everything,” they said. “Plus we’re just a bunch of weird guys.”

As previously mentioned, Kuerschner, Lowe, Stottler and drummer Andrew Stark will open for Papadosio Friday at the Majestic Theatre.

“We’re excited because we love the Majestic as a venue,” Kuerschner said. “Also because we look up to Papadosio as a band. We’ve been really into their stuff lately.”

Wook will also be playing a fundraiser show with The Family Business for the American Lung Association on October 4 at the Majestic Theatre, for which tickets are now available. All the proceeds will go to charity.



Read more: http://host.madison.com/daily-cardinal/entertainment/take-a-wook-at-this-local-band/article_49d635c4-fe0e-11e1-9ce7-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2F5HzDWFa - The Daily Cardinal

The indie rock/progressive band Wook, based out of Madison, is planning to host a benefit concert at the Majestic Theatre to spread awareness about lung cancer in the Madison community.

Conceived among school friends in Madison, Wook began as a hobby between like-minded students.

“The founding three members went to high school together,” said bassist Mike Kuerschner. “We played in various bands on and off, went to college, and started getting a little more serious about it.”

Wook kicked into high gear in 2008, when things started getting a bit more professional. “That’s when we really started to play more shows and doing things in Madison,” Kuerschner recalled.

The upcoming concert, to be held in partnership with the American Lung Association, was the brainchild of Kuerschner, who had lost a close family member earlier this year after suffering from cancer.

“Little over two months ago, my mother passed away from lung cancer,” Kuerschner said. “I was toying with the idea [of hosting a benefit concert] since everything came about.”

His family played a major role in getting the concert to happen. “My sister is involved with the American Lung Association,” Kuerschner said. “They’re very supportive of my family. I wanted to do something to give back to them.”

Once they started planning, everything fell into place easier than expected. “It moved quickly because the venue was instantly ready to do it, and we didn’t have to wait on a lot of back-and-forth deals,” Adam Lowe, guitarist and vocalist for Wook said. It also helped that Kuerschner was on close terms with the owner of the Majestic. “I worked for the Majestic for a while in college,” he said. “I brought the idea to them, and they were nice enough to fit us into the schedule.”

From conception to reality, the cancer benefit concert took less than two months to organize. “It really worked out,” Kuerschner said. “Everyone was supportive, everything fit, and that’s not typically the case.”

“We’re really excited to give back to an organization that’s trying to do great things and raise awareness,” he said. “But at the same time, we’re looking to have a good time like always.”

Although this is the first concert of its kind for Wook, the band prides itself on flexibility and ability to improvise, according to Kuerschner. “In the most broad sense, we’re a jam band,” he explained. “We do a lot of live improvisations on stage, and our songs are longer.”

Wook’s music is often inspired from modern genres, Kuerschner revealed. “We really take a lot of influence from progressive rock and electronic music, including our use of laptops and synthesizers on stage.”

These unique traits are best demonstrated in “Galaxy”, one of their most popular songs, Lowe said. He counts the track as one of their favorites to play on stage. “It has a lot of progressive sections, traditional rock, and even some spots for improv,” Lowe said. “It’s definitely a fan favorite, and captures almost every flavor we have.”

The four-member troupe — other than Kuerschner and Lowe, Wook includes Jake Stottler on the guitar and synth, and Andrew Stark on the drums — is planning to release their first full studio album in the next few months. “We got the album planned out, and we know the songs we want to do,” Lowe said. “We just have to go in and record it.”

Although the band is still quite small — only a little more than 2,000 likes on their Facebook page — the members are confident that they can grow bigger. “We’re not really worried,” Lowe said. “We don’t pay too much attention to things like a Facebook page.”

“We focus more on if it is going up and growing at a good rate, rather than the actual numbers,” Kuerschner added. “We think this is a good time in our career.”

“We need to keep playing,” Lowe said. “Stay at it. That’s what drives us.”

The benefit concert will be held at the Majestic Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 9:30 p.m.. Although the venue is free to enter, there is a suggested donation of $8. More information can be found at the Majestic Theatre’s official page at majesticmadison.com. - The Badger Herald

At the recent UW Battle Of The Bands, Madison jam band Wook blew through roughly two-thirds of its allotted 20-minute set on one song (the twisty-turny astro-funk tune “Galaxy.”) Totally aware of the stereotypes hurled at their genre, guitarist/keyboard player Jake Stottler just wryly smiled and said, “We’re a jam band, so we’ll probably only play two songs.” But for all the wandering of Stottler and guitarist Justin Wouters, they (and the audience) can stay comfortably grounded in reality and song structure thanks to an ace rhythm section made up of bassist Mike Kuerschner and drummer Andrew Stark. - The Onion

As students start putting their costumes and keg orders together for Halloween weekend, perhaps they should factor Wook-O-Ween into their plans. The event, which is set to go down at the Orpheum Theatre Stage Door from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., is sure to provide an avenue for the hordes of Freakfest attendees looking to continue dancing into the morning.

"It'll be hard not to dance," said Mike Kuerschner, bass player of headlining band Wook. A good reason for that is the increasingly danceable nature of Wook's music, a band that has grown up quickly over the span of the past year.

Wook's foundations stem from Kuerschner's high school days, when he frequently performed with guitarist/vocalist Jake Stottler and drummer Andrew Stark. But Wook, which now includes guitarist Justin Wouters, didn't really materialize until the fall of 2009 when the band started performing regularly around Madison. Considering their jump from semi-weekly gigs in local bars to their performance at one of the biggest festivals in the jam scene, Summercamp, it's fair to say Wook has become one of Madison's most promising student acts.

Like their biggest influence, electro-jam pioneers Umphrey's McGee, Wook is able to delve into lengthy improvisations onstage.
"It's mostly freeform," Kuerschner said of the jams the group more or less invent onstage. And while many jam bands bore their audience with stagnant grooves, Kuerschner said Wook has the ability to "tell when [the jam is] going somewhere great and when it's going nowhere."

More importantly, the band knows where to draw the line, as they've "gotten pretty good at stopping [the jam] before it nosedives." That said, some of Wook's marathons still lasted 15 minutes at their live performances.

While Wook's standard drums-guitar-bass ensemble suits their more traditional jam taste, the band has recently explored synthesizers and laptops in an attempt to incorporate electronica into their repertoire.

"We're trying to branch out into a bit more electronic music," Kuerschner said. "But we want to keep in touch with real singer-songwriter types of songs as well."

As one would expect, Wook's incorporation of electronic elements has only made their performances more accessible for the college scene, and Kuerschner hopes for a good turnout from the college crowd at Saturday night's show.

Wook's setlists are mostly composed of the band's original songs, but they also like to include covers to get fans interested in the show. Rather than playing the cover songs as they were written, however, Wook likes to manipulate songs so they highlight their own style.

Although the headlining act hits the stage around 12:45 a.m., "Wook-O-Ween" offers the equally talented Ifdakar and The Coop performing prior to Wook's performance. Ifdakar, a five-piece Madison band who spread reggae, electronica and funk into their jams, are set to start the event at 10 p.m. with an hour-long set. The Coop, a four-piece jam outfit from Chicago, promise to get the crowd grooving as they hit the stage at 11:15 p.m. for a 75-minute set.

And, as if there wasn't already enough incentive to wear a ridiculous costume this Halloween, Wook-O-Ween is offering special prize packs for a few audience members the band determines to have the best costumes. The details are still unclear, but Kuerschner said the winning costume-wearers should expect a generous package of CDs and concert tickets from all three bands.
As for Wook's costumes, Kuerschner promised they would be extravagant but refused to divulge any details.

"They're pretty cool, they go along with the electronic and lights theme," Kuerschner said. "But that's about all I should say."
Whether or not the gigantic Freakfest crowd will have the energy to keep dancing at Wook-O-Ween remains to be seen, but as Kuerschner said, "The fan base seemed big enough that we can bring a lot of people in."

With last year's Freakfast tallying some 44,000 attendees, the Orpheum Stage Door should be pretty damn full by the time Wook hit the stage.

The Orpheum Stage Door will host Wook-O-Ween this Saturday, Oct. 30. Doors open at 9:00 p.m. and music begins at 10:00 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door. - The Daily Cardinal - Madison, WI

Summer Camp 2010 began with Wook amongst the campers on Friday, May 28th in Chillicothe, IL until coming to a close on Sunday, May 30th with fest hosts/instigators moe. on the main stage and fellow fest anchor Umphrey's McGee and livetronica mainstays EOTO booming till wee hours for those not yet willing to let one of jam's favorite "camps" end. In between Three Sisters Park rang with the sounds of The Avett Brothers, Gov't Mule, Yonder Mountain String Band and many more. Here's a healthy glimpse of what went down at Summer Camp 2010. - Jambase.com