Wonderly is known for their bevy of indie film soundtracks and podcast theme songs, but their original songs and albums are most often defined by harmony and storytelling. They sound equally at home making epic symphonic soundscapes, twangy Americana and bubbly pop, producing and playing just about every instrument along the way. In their nearly three decades of collaboration, they’ve backed up their idols onstage (Smokey Robinson, Van Dyke Parks, Kristin Hersh), and made music with Northwest luminaries like Liz Vice, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs and Ural Thomas.
Wonderly bowed with a self-titled album in 2017, succeeded by the post-pandemic Story We Tell in 2022. In the interim, their music was heard as the theme song of the New York Times’ podcast “The Daily” and writer Cheryl Strayed’s “Dear Sugar,” as well as “Roam Schooled,” a podcast on which Brunberg collaborated with his daughters.
Wolves (due out November 1st), the band’s new release, comprises 11 brightly melodic, extravagantly arranged, emotionally hard-hitting original songs that chart the light and dark of human experience, is the seventh release by this well-traveled pair of Pacific Northwest musicians. It succeeds Wonderly’s 2023 covers collection Appropriate ’til Death, which features unique interpretations of artists as diverse as David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Eilish, and Thelonious Monk.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the standout track “Plaid Pantry” and its humorous video. The name will surely resonate with everyone who lives in Oregon as it is the state’s official convenience store. Indeed, the song is an anthemic ode to these stores that offer everything from booze to smokes, munchies, lottery tickets, and more. The video also captures the many antics that take place at Plaid Pantry on a regular basis, set to Wonderly’s sunny, folksy power pop sounds complete with a harmonic chorus that should become the chain’s official song if this writer has anything to say about it.
Jim Brunberg describes the inspiration and story behind the song and its video:
“Ben and I are writing constantly – it’s our favorite thing to do. Sometimes when we have a batch of songs we look for a common thread and this time it was crystal clear: wolves. As in the “two wolves you feed” fable and also the wolves that howl out in search of the core of our planet identity / purpose / soul. When the wolves circle, are they about to attack or is it just a community forming? We write and record in a home studio that contains the gear that was originally part of Mississippi Studios. Some of it is vintage and quality, and some of it is just tools of convenience for getting the ideas “set to wax” as quickly as possible – to preserve the vibrance of the ideas.
“Every Portland musician knows the local convenience store chain Plaid Pantry. We have great empathy for the people working late nights and dealing with a bunch of stoners, drunks, mental health crises, and people staring at (or stealing) candy for hours. When I came up with the idea for the video (a clerk, struggling with which wolf to feed and contemplating robbing her own store), I contacted the local company, who very politely refused to allow us access. As it turns out, our favorite punk legend/icon Toody Cole (Dead Moon) owns a bodega nearby. She let us film there and even made a cameo. Local Director/cinematographers Tom Grissom and James Westby helped film a lengthy shot list and my kids pretended to smoke, on fake cigs. One local passerby took issue with this and kept harassing us during the shoot!“
“In this song, you have a protagonist who is, depending on how you listen, either working at a Plaid Pantry or knocking it off. The Kinks-y acoustic arrangement gives both a bright-sighted cheer and a sinister undercurrent.”
WATCH:
