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Wig Party is Back with that Groove and Their New EP, 99th Birthday

It's tough to have a talented spouse and a blog about music. Eventually, the two are going to cross and you are going to have to sit there and wonder if nepotism is a thing in music journalism. Is it? I have no idea. But here is the scoop... my hubs joined this pretty neato band called Wig Party and now Wig Party has this pretty neato EP that I want to talk about and I don't know if I can, but I am going to anyway so when you see me gushing in run on sentences, you know this is me trying to determine if I am being a bad blogger. Am I?

Fuck it.

So here is Wig Party. A band of merry fellows from Northern New Jersey who have come to knock the socks clear off your feet. I actually did a piece on their Phish pre-party at American beauty a while back. You can read about that right HERE. It was a super good time! I'm glad to now be a part of this Wig Party family. But more on that later.

The band has been around a while. They found some notoriety with their first release, Glass Girls,  and even found themselves charted for three months straight on Relix's Jambands radio chart, including holding at places 5 and 6. Not too shabby, guys! They played pre-parties and afterparties for Phish and the Bob Weir/Phil Lesh duo at BB King's and American Beauty in New York City, as well as the Raven Room in NJ. The band was young and promising but as often happens, the promise seemed to stop short. Tragedy struck hard, and the band lost keyboardist and dear friend Hank Rosenthal to a battle with addiction. While some bands might never recover from such a blow, Wig Party found the strength.



With that strength came new life and a new three song EP.

99th birthday was recorded at Mixolydian Studios in lovely Water Gap, PA under the masterful producer eye of Railroad Earth's own Tim Carbone. Because one legend having their hands on your music is not enough, the band also brought in Don Sternecker to engineer the EP and 9 time Grammy winner Gene Paul to master it. The album also features a guest spot from the late wonderful Andy Goesling of Railroad Earth on both tenor and baritone sax which added a touch of deep soul to the fun and danceable track. While the album highlights the great songwriting that is Wig Party, the real experience with the band is to see them live.



2018 saw the addition of new members, drummer Tom DiCianni and bassist Eric Marcazo, as well as keyboardist Joe Biglin. In addition to original member John Cisco moving to guitar and vocalist/guitarist Vincent Ventriglia hanging out where he's always been, the band is poised for a super exciting 2019. The guys have been out warming up the stage with their particular brand of "Slacker Jam" and sophisticated groove fun. The live show is where it's at. The guys are master of improvisation on the stage and have a fantastic chemistry that they more or less stumbled upon just having a good time and playing music among friends. They debuted this new groove opening for Kung Fu's Chris DeAngelis and his side project, LoEndFreque a couple months ago and have not looked back. 

You can get your grubby little hands on the music in all the usual places, but here is a link to the website to have a tasty look: MUSIC

Keep an eye to the website HERE for upcoming shows and other goodness from the band. Check out 99th Birthday. This is not an obligated post. It's really freaking good!


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