UWeekly Article, Issue 26, May 3rd 2006
Wicked Lung and The Wookalar
Keepin’ it Evil
By Jason Latimer
Don’t feel bad if you find yourself struggling to describe Wicked Lung and the Wookalar’s sound—they can’t quite seem to put it into words either. They’ve been compared to the Beastie Boys, Bloodhound Gang, Kool Keith, Eminem, and everything in between. But that doesn’t bother them, says Jason Clever (aka The Wookalar), “that’s all some people have heard, and they don’t have anything else to compare us to, so I guess it makes sense.” But such comparisons make anything but sense as soon as the track starts. The skull-crushing beats and biting prose-style lyrics can only be described as unique.
“We spend a lot of time going to thrift stores and record stores looking for odd records. A lot of the good old soul stuff has already been sampled, so it’s kind of corny to use that stuff. We look for a lot of old soundtracks and things like that,” says Clever. The Columbus natives spend the majority of their time composing beats from old LPs on an MPC (Music Production Center for the layman) at their respective homes. From there, vocalist Ryan Osterholt (aka Wicked Lung) spits his strange, almost train-of-thought lyrics, which he says aren’t written to fit rhythmically over a rap song.
Creep Deep is the second LP from the dynamic duo after the group’s 2003 indie debut, Angle Bangers. Taking another stab at verbal description, Clever says, “[Creep Deep] is a hip hop album, so it’s kind of wherever Ryan takes it, but mostly it’s tongue in cheek, lots of pop culture references, and keepin’ it evil.”
“I don’t know if you know this,” says Clever, “but we’re going all the way through the alphabet [pause] you know, a to z...” He goes on to explain that the group plans to name each subsequent album by going through the alphabet. For example, two more records will be released this year, dubbed “Electric Frost” and “Gremlin Hordes.” The idea behind the “alphabet thing,” says Clever, is that “it opens things up for us. On one album, we can concentrate on sounding a certain way, and go in a different direction on another. But we’re always going to mix hip hop into it.”
One of the upcoming albums will be what the band calls a “metal album.” The album will be rhyme-free and cut-free, focusing on a more traditional song structure. According to Clever, “we did metal songs where we sampled all the guitars and drums. For some of the songs, we sampled friends’ guitars, and sometimes we took samples from metal bands like... well, I probably shouldn’t mention their names...”
In the months to come, the group will tour cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York in support of the three albums that will drop this year. “We’re hoping to make it to the west coast, but that’s a lot of work, so we’re still working on that.” Clever says that the exhaustive touring and production are in response to the slump that came after the numerous shows after the release of “Angle Bangers.” He goes on to say, “For a period of time there, we spent a lot of time working on music and getting ahead of ourselves. We had taken some time off from playing a bunch of shows around town, just because it was getting old.” Now fully rested and chomping at the bit, Wicked Lung and the Wookalar have a newfound commitment to “being super-productive,” that is to say, producing a lot of material and playing lots of shows.
With the daunting year of touring and album releases ahead of them, another burnout for Wicked Lung and The Wookalar seems likely, but don’t expect them to disappear for good any time soon. Says Clever, “we’ve been in this business a long time, like ten years. The dream is to get to the point where this is all that we have to do, and we don’t have to work our day jobs. That’s the dream.”
Wicked Lung And The Wookalar will be at Skully’s Music Diner on Saturday, 5/6 to celebrate the release of the band’s new CD Creep Deep. Grand Buffet, Bhb and Epochodemic Seraphic support. For more information please call 291-8856 or visit www.skullys.org online. For more information about Wicked Lung And The Wookalar please visit the band’s official website at www.wickedlungwookalar.com.
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Review on Donewating.com
Yes indeed, your favorite "intellectual" (ok fine, they might be a bit nerdy) local rap duo is back with their first of (at least!) two albums to be released in 2006, Creep Deep. Well, if you didn't know, Wicked Lung is the MC and the Wookalar is the DJ. They've been kickin' it in Columbus for over 10 years now, and you may know them from their earlier work in the dearly departed Trailer Park Ninjas. Anyway, their new one is 22 tracks deep, though there are only 12 songs with intervening interludes. The interesting observations and outlandish boasts of Wicked Lung bounce pretty well over the weird sound effects and 808 bass of Wookalar's beats. Many songs follow weird themes and schemes, like "Look Out," an ode to sugary foods, and "Alphabet Soup," where each word starts with the next letter of the alphabet ("Appalachian Bear Claws Destroy..."). Despite the numerous tracks, they all work pretty well together, and the interlude beats usually help the album flow from one track to the next. Sure, this disc probably isn't suited for most pop rap fans, but if you like ridiculous/goofy rhymes, funny samples, and references to pants-pooping, this disc could be suited for you.
Even better than this disc, in my opinion, is their live show, and guess what! Wicked Lung & Wookalar are having a release party for this album with help from Grand Buffet (Pittsburgh) and locals Epochdemic & DJ BHB at Skullys this Saturday, May 6th. Do it!