David Wax Museum

David Wax Museum
Genres Folk
Years active 2009 (2009)–present
Website www.davidwaxmuseum.com
Members David Wax
Suz Slezak

David Wax Museum is a folk and roots rock band blending traditional Mexican Son music with Americana in what they call "Mexo-Americana."[1] David Wax and Suz Slezak are its core members, while Jordan Wax (David's cousin), Chris Dammann, Danilo Henriquez, Charles Rivera, Philip Mayer, Mike Roberts, Greg Glassman, Alec Spiegelman, and Jiro Kokubu have played supporting roles. To date, all of the band's albums have been self-released, supported by grassroots efforts and an active touring schedule.

History

The David Wax Museum released its first album, I Turned Off Thinking About, in 2008. Its second album, Carpenter Bird (2009), included many tracks that would become staples in the band's live shows.

The band had its breakthrough after winning a contest for a spot at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival.[2] Paste (magazine) dubbed the band "the breakout act" of the festival.[3] The band was the winner in the Americana category in the 2010 Boston Music Awards.

In 2011, the band released the critically acclaimed album Everything Is Saved, featuring the song "Born with a Broken Heart," which was named Song of the Year in the Boston Music Awards. After playing South by Southwest in 2011, Craig Duff in Time (magazine) dubbed the David Wax Museum one of the "Ten Acts That Rocked South by Southwest."[4] They went on to play the main stage on the final day of the Newport Folk Festival. On the night of their performance, The Huffington Post ran a profile of the band in which Rob Kirkpatrick called them "The Best Band You Might Not Know."[5]

The band released its fourth full-length album, Knock Knock Get Up, in late summer 2012. The Huffington Post called it "louder, richer, fuller, less minimalist and more mature" than the band's previous releases and described it as "an album that will challenge fans" and "leav[e] [them] wanting to play it again."[6] On the day of the official album release, The New York Times published a Q & A with band members Wax and Slezak.

Entering a self-described Technicolor world, David Wax Museum’s new album ‘Guesthouse’ (Oct 16 2015, Thirty Tigers) melds the band’s strong acoustic sound with synthesizers, layers of percussion, and adventurous sonic processing to create the band’s boldest studio album to date.

Musical style

David Wax became interested in rural Mexican folk music after attending Deep Springs College and Harvard University and focuses on different styles of son music. Wax, who hails from Columbia, Missouri, sings and primarily plays the jarana, a Mexican instrument similar to a guitar.[5]

Slezak is a fiddler and vocalist who in the Museum also plays quijada, a percussion instrument made from a donkey’s jawbone.[7]

New York Times writer James C. McKinley Jr. described the band's style as "a lively and rustic cross-border mix: lonesome Appalachian harmonies over mariachi horn lines and rhythms you might hear at a rural dance in Veracruz or San Luis Potosí."[8]

Discography

Albums

Music videos

Year Video Director
2012 "Born with a Broken Heart" Dina Rudick
2012 "Will You Be Sleeping?" Part 1 and Part 2 Monkeywhale Productions
2012 "Harder Before It Gets Easier" Shutter & String

References

  1. ↑ Gewertz, Daniel (January 31, 2011). "Night at the David Wax Museum". Boston Herald. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Shantel (August 1, 2010). "David Wax Museum In Concert: Newport Folk Festival 2010". NPR. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Josh (January 19, 2011). "MP3 Premiere: David Wax Museum's "Chuchumbe"". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  4. ↑ Duff, Craig (March 23, 2011). "Ten Acts That Rocked South by Southwest". TIME Magazine. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  5. 1 2 Kirkpatrick, Rob (July 31, 2011). "The David Wax Museum: The Best Band You Might Not Know". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  6. ↑ Kirkpatrick, Rob (August 30, 2012). "David Wax Museum Moves to More Mature Sound on New Album Knock Knock Get Up". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  7. ↑ Berndtson, Chad. "Spend a night at the David Wax Museum". The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  8. ↑ McKinley, James C., Jr. (September 4, 2012). "Finding a Path to Mexico in Appalachia". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 September 2012.

External links

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