photo: Graham Smith
NYC pop trio Kleenex Girl Wonder have a way with words. With a lot of words to be more precise. The band's songwriter and lead singer Graham Smith can be inspired to write a song about pretty much anything. The new single On Walter Hil is about the leading UK sport bets firm and you can picture the punters standing in line with diminishing hopes that this particular bet will make them rich and change their lives forever. Walter Hill is also the name of the American director and movies are another means to dream and get away from reality.
On Walter Hil is the first taste of their forthcoming 13th album, the 2LP The Comedy Album. For an American band they sound rather English and that's pretty rare - the other way round is much more common.
Graham Smith about how the song came to be:
In London (and potentially elsewhere), there is a chain of betting parlors with a lovely logo called William Hill. Right around the time that I finalized the title and idea for The Comedy Album, I was wandering around London, lonely due to a number of factors, and I saw one of these signs, and decided that I would write a pleasant ballad about loss, gambling, and the wonderful director Walter Hill. This song has a lot of things which are very personally meaningful to me -- I once ordered dozens of Chick tracts in exotic languages like Thai and Burmese, and I to this day have the setlist for a Slant 6 show at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago on my fridge -- which is, surprisingly enough, somewhat unusual. It also has a line about calling someone fat, which I want to point out is not about anyone in particular, and of course I am also not the narrator, because I never am. Bruce McDonald, who is indeed Canadian, but is not one (or more!) of The Kids in the Hall, directed a wonderful film called Pontypool which inspired The Comedy Album on a number of levels.
Kleenex Girl Wonder:
Graham Smith: vocals, bass
Thayer McClanahan: guitar
Matt LeMay: drums
The Comedy Album will be released on their own Reesonable Records label (2LP, digital). Release date: October 29.
