One of our favorite bands not found on streaming services is Wondermints. Sure, you might find a song or two here and there, but among their three studios LPs, cover album and rarities collection, the best of Wondermints’ best is locked away on CDs.
Sandbar Sounds is running a sporadic series on the music of the Wondermints starting with this post that asks the question: What is the Wondermints’ listening experience like?
Sadly, our online store is vinyl only for the moment, not CDs, and does not currently stock Wondermints but that will change soon as we expand our inventory. Until then, enjoy, enjoy and enjoy, any which way you find to listen.
Picture some little kid in swim trunks and goggles on a diving board on a summer day at the public swimming pool. From the ground, you can sense this kid has something going on. Nonchalant, he strolls from the ladder toward the edge of the board, play pretending he doesn’t know he’s on a diving board. He reaches the edge and steps off.
For one glorious moment, he hangs in the air. Because the kid is a goofball, he expresses a range of emotions. First, he acts like he’s still on solid ground, but something doesn’t feel right. He taps his toe where he expects more diving board and finds there’s nothing beneath his feet other than air. Time to say prayers, wave bye-bye, hold up a hand-painted sign that says UH OH (if only the lifeguards would let him bring such a thing into the pool).
Next comes the plunge, which happens in a blink. The air drops the kid in the water with a splash, and seconds later, the water lifts him back up to the surface. He dog paddles to the side of the pool, all Kool-Aid smiles and jazzed to go again. The lifeguard whistles at him not to run.
This time, imagine it’s you in the place of the kid. Walking off the edge of the diving board under a sky so blue it’s purple. You hang in the summer air for that moment until gravity remembers to come for you. You trade sky-blue sky for aqua blue water, close in color but not the same. You trade an airy world that lets you forget you’re breathing for a watery world that won’t let you breathe (but you can outsmart water by holding your breath a few seconds at a time). You trade a world where gravity rules your every move for a world where slow motion underwater flight is the only way to travel.
Now you know what it’s like to experience music from the band called Wondermints. It’s euphoric, delirious, stereophonic and creates a sensation of warm sun, cool water, and at times strangely enough, outer space and multiple dimensions, but we’ll get to those in time.
Check back soon for more on Wondermints! In the meantime, check out Wondermints’ Facebook page.
