Will Wood has been said to have appeared out of nowhere, stumbling out of a hallucinogenic haze in 2015. He immediately began attracting attention and controversy with his eccentric and difficult-to-pin-down public persona and provocative performance art. Joined by his band “The Tapeworms,” Wood confused and excited audiences and press alike with his constantly shifting, genre-defying musical style and over-the-top performances, which often featured light shows, acrobatics, standup comedy, and other theatrical elements that challenged the status quo of the local scene.
Over the past few years, Wood and his band “The Tapeworms” (Matt Berger, Vater Boris, Mike Bottiglieri, Mario Conte) have developed an uncomfortably large (and on occasion, borderline dangerous) cult following and received rave reviews from media outlets and fans alike from all over the world.
Shortly after chucking out the bottle and entering recovery at the beginning of his career, Wood was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and began treatment. He has since begun to take a new direction with his work, dedicated to giving back to the world in the form of charity funded by merch, tickets, and music sales, and using his music to try and inspire others with their own struggles. He now leads a reclusive life in rural New Jersey, having turned his back on social media, with the exception of his Patreon account, where he publishes most of his work as one of the top 1% of creators.
Will Wood worked with his tightly-knit community of followers to crowdfund his latest album, The Normal Album, which is due out July 10th on Say-10 Records and was fully funded in its first day. The album raised ~$28,000 by selling everything from the chance to appear on the record to a cut of sales, and was produced by Jonathon Maisto, with a guest appearance by multi-platinum Panic! At the Disco producer Matt Squire.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for “Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!),” one of the most notable tracks on the upcoming album. With a brassy soundtrack that falls between swing, lounge, klezmer and Latin Jazz, the song is a dark and swanky morsel of avant-pop. Wood’s weirdness is on full display as he dances maniacally in a purple suit, yet the beauty of this song is that it manages to be completely out there while still being super catchy. There is a fun and exotic spookiness to the music, which is interwoven with a fiery, Santana-esque guitar solo, culminating in a song that makes you want to put on a creepy costume and attend a ball. This is heightened by the fact that the music video features real human remains (legally and ethically sourced) brought back to life through stop motion animation. The video is directed by Will Wood, who also took the lead on animation, and the remains were provided by famed oddities collector Cole Mozelesky.
Will Wood explains the inspiration behind the song:
“There are some cultures where if you don’t feast on the flesh of kidnapped explorers and drink their blood from your late father’s skull with a headful of hallucinogenic botanicals it makes people uncomfortable. Nothing is real and free will is a gibberish phrase invented by an animal that likes to feel good about itself and bad about others.”
WATCH:
The Normal Album is out July 10th on Say-10 Records. PRE-ORDER
Photo credit: Jake Feldman
