Will Wood and his pet rat.
Will Wood is an American musician, writer, director, and comedian known for his unique lyrics, oft-shifting musical style, and ability to do a backflip. He formerly made music with a full band, with him and the band collectively being billed as "Will Wood and the Tapeworms".
He has released five studio albums and two live albums, and made the switch to releasing music under his individual name in 2020 for various reasons. He also produced, directed, and starred in the mockumentary concert film The Real Will Wood with Chris Dunne.
Will is known for his reclusive nature, which has taken the form of avoiding social media and deliberately muddling the existing information about his personal life and even his public image as an artist. Early in his career, he showed up to select press appearances while playing a character, and his shows could consist of anything from staged mental breakdowns and fights with planted audience members to him intentionally botching a performance. As a result, there exist varying conflicting accounts of his personal and professional life.
One matter Will has consistently been candid about, however, is his struggles with drug addiction and mental illness (eventually being diagnosed with bipolar disorder). He donates part of his income to several mental health charities, including the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
In January 2023, after the release of his live album IN CASE I DIE, Will began an indefinite break from his music career, which he stated could possibly take the form of retirement. He still co-hosts the comedy podcast Life In The World To Come with Dunne.
Discography
Will Wood and the Tapeworms
- Everything is a Lot (2015)
- SELF-iSH (2016)
- The Real Will Wood (live, 2018)
- Everything is a Lot (remastered) (2020)
- SELF-iSH (Remastered) (2020)
Will Wood
- The Normal Album (2020)
- ”In case I make it,” (2022)
- ”Camp Here & There” (2022)
- IN CASE I DIE (live, 2023)
Tropes:
- Album Closure:
- Everything is a Lot ends with the Title Track note , which starts off as a regular song, then fades into construction noises for about two minutes, and finally ends with a group of people chanting about various Buddhist concepts and drugs.
- The Normal Album ends with a song constantly telling the viewer that they're going to die someday, likely in some horrible way, and be forgotten.You could drown, or choke, or burn, or be hit by a car
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but something will eventually!
- Album Title Drop: “Everything is a lot” is dropped in the very last song of Everything is a Lot, namely “Everything Is a Lot”.
- The Alcoholic:
- “The First Step” is about describing an alcoholic’s mind. The title is a reference to the Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program.
- “Half-Decade Hangover” is about the aftermath of Will’s alcoholism and dealing with what his drunk self has done.
- Animated Music Video:
- “Tomcat Disposables” features a stop-motion animation of a rat.
- “You Liked This (Okay, Computer!)” is a CGI animation of… something.
- “Euthanasia” depicts a rat’s journey to the afterlife.
- Artist and the Band: Will's act used to be "Will Wood and the Tapeworms", until he changed it in 2020.
- Artistic License – History: "The Main Character" includes the line "And Siemens made the Zyklon B". Siemens is active in technology and not chemistry and Zyklon B
was actually invented by a company called Degesch. - Bookends: “Self-” and “-Ish” for SELF-iSH.
- Break Up Song:
- "Cover This Song (A Little Bit Mine)" is a song about wanting an ex back, badly.
- "Vampire Reference In A Minor Key" is a spooky-themed break-up song.
- Callback:
- “Half-Decade Hangover” has the line “Hand me my shovel, I’m going in”, a callback to the SELF-iSH track.
- The song “Everything Is A Lot” is referenced in “2012” with “Glory be satori, but it’s hallucinatory”
- "...well, better than the alternative" has the lines "but everybody knows that, nobody knows that / everybody’s in on everybody’s business", which is almost identical to two lines from "Suburbia Overture".
- "The Main Character" drops the line "Where do you get off?", referencing a song with the same Either/Or Title from Everything is a Lot.
- "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll" references "-Ish", with the line "I just turned 27, and I'm dying of old age". Not to mention "guess I'm just selfish" being a callback to SELF-iSH as a whole.
- The melody of "Bones" is used again in the outro to "Chemical Overreaction...". This is made more clear in The Real Will Wood, where "Chemical Overreaction..." transitions into "Bones".
- Changing Chorus:
- "The Main Character" has a chorus that starts with "So God forbid I'm seen just as an average human being / I mean, imagine if protagonists just died in the first scene". The third time it's sung, the second part changes to "I mean, imagine if antagonists lacked any evil scheme".
- "...well, better than the alternative" has a chorus that changes each time it's sung, with the first time saying "Everybody's in on everybody's business". It then changes to "Everybody's all up in my goddamn business" and "Everybody's all up in my motherfucking business" before finally going back to the first iteration of the chorus.
- Concept Album:
- SELF-iSH has themes of reality vs the self throughout.
- The Normal Album explores themes of what exactly it means to be "normal" and how much value society puts on it. Topics discussed include Stepford Suburbias ("Suburbia Overture"), therapy and psychoanalytics ("Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics[...]"), how we judge people based on their actions ("Laplace's Angel"), and gender norms ("I / Me / Myself").And I'd rather be normal, yes, so normal
I suggest that we keep this informal
'Cause a normal human being wouldn't need, no
To pretend to be normal, to be normal
Well, I guess that's the least that I owe ya
To be normal in a way I could never be
- Deliberately Monochrome:
- The video for “Mr. Capgras Encounters A Secondhand Vanity…”.
- The video for "White Noise".
- Either/Or Title: A lot.
- “6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro / Con)”
- “Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)”
- ”¡Aikido! (Neurotic / Erotic)”
- “White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)”
- “Cover This Song (A Little Bit Mine)”
- “Chemical Overreaction / Compound Fracture”
- “Cotard’s Solution (Anatta, Dukka, Anicca)”
- “The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate Atheists! a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know”
- “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally”
- “2econd 2ight 2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)
- “Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)
- “You Liked This (Okay, Computer!)”
- “Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie, Christmas Tree, and Recreational Jell-o Emporium a.k.a. “Mr. Boy is on the Roof Again” (Feat. Pasta by Sneakers McSqueakers) [From “B.F.B.’s B-Sides: Bagel Batches, Marsh-Mallows, & Barsh-Mallows”]”
- The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles:
- “Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer’s Prosopagnosia/Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)”
- “Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples”
- Hurricane of Puns:
- "The Main Character" has the line "Beating my dead high horse off the high road to low ground!", which combines four phrases into one sentence: "beating a dead horse", "get off your high horse", "taking the high road", and "moral high ground".
- "Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples" has the lyric "But a few bad ones won't spoil the eyes if they fall far enough from the tree," blending three different apple-themed idioms ("A few bad apples spoil the bunch," "the apple of my eye," and "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree").
- Immortality Through Memory: "Memento Mori" suggests that "at most a couple generations will remember the ways in which your life never mattered" once you die, and after that you'll be "naught but a faint memory".
- It's All About Me: "The Main Character" is loaded with this as the narcissistic narrator sings about how everyone should like him, in spite of his arrogance.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Played for Laughs with "Memento Mori", an upbeat piano tune about the inevitability of death with surprisingly brutal lyrics.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Listening to “Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll”, a somber piano ballad about Will’s frustration with his fame, and then going into the next track on the album “Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie…”, a transition track that sounds like it’s from a school Christmas play, can cause a lot of whiplash to a first-time listener.
- “Suburbia Overture” is actually three songs, the first being a chipper doo-wop song, the second a much darker jazz-rock styled song with wailing guitars, and the third a calmer song with just a piano and Will’s voice.
- Non-Appearing Title: Will is really fond of these, which gets egregious to the point of hilarity considering he's also fond of long-winded and complicated Either Or Titles... where somehow not a single part of the title appears in the song.
- Non-Indicative Name: Played with "Thermodynamic Lawyer Esq, G.F.D." The song has absolutely nothing to do with law and everything to do with lashing out at a supposedly toxic love interest, and, as fairly common in Will Wood music, the title doesn't figure in the song at all. However, going by some of Will's comments, it seems that the song was retitled as a result of his lawyer's advice, meanwhile "G.F.D." is implied to be what's left of what may well have been the original title, which does actually appear in the song: "Go Fucking Die".
- Obsession Song:
- "¡Aikido! (Neurotic / Erotic)"
- "Cover This Song (A Little Bit Mine)
- "Your Body, My Temple"
- "Um, It's Kind Of A Lot"
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: The protagonist in "The Main Character" is utterly convinced that everything he does is right, mainly consisting of bragging about how great he is and harassing people who don't agree with him, because he's "the main character" of life.So God forbid I'm seen just as an average human being!
I mean, imagine if protagonists just died in the first scene!
I'm the gap between a tragedy and comedy!
Don't come at me!
I'm the main character and you have to like me! - Remaster: Both Everything Is a Lot and SELF-iSH were remastered in 2020.
- Spoken Word in Music:
- The end of “Skeleton Appreciation Day” has several voices say different stock-phrases commonly associated with unhealthy dieting and eating disorders.
- The remastered version of “Cover This Song” has a growling voice at the start saying “Why do you wanna kill me?”
- “Outliars and Hyppocrates…” has a few spoken word parts.
- “BlackBoxWarrior - OKULTRA” has a minute long spoken interlude from the perspective of a therapist, getting increasingly more unhinged.
- In “Love, Me Normally” the first bridge is spoken from the perspective of a performer to his audience, and similarly to “BlackBoxWarrior”, gets more heated as he goes on.
- The end of “Against the Kitchen Floor” has Will complaining about his self-centeredness, sarcastically saying “Cause it has to be all about Will’s fucking drama, goddamn it”, and in anger, kicking over a chair and apologizing.
- The live version of “White Noise” has a comedy bit in the middle of the song.
- Stepford Suburbia: The opening track of The Normal Album describes a traditional American town... but with disturbing lines snuck in revolving around nuclear war. It dips into much darker lyrics about the citizens "cumming radiation" and eating each other's organs.
- Studio Chatter:
- At the end of “Cover This Song”, clapping, talking, and footsteps can be heard.
- In the remastered “Cotard’s Solution”, someone says “Ah, less forceful” and a reply, “Sorry, man”.
- Suddenly Shouting: "Suburbia Overture" has the line "Everybody's all up in my BUSINESS!"
- Textless Album Cover: ”In case I make it,” has just a moon with a slice of cheese taken out, surrounded by stars.
- Title Track: The last song on Everything is a Lot.
- Villain Song: "Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)" is about a person who has committed many evil acts (heavily implied to be a serial killer, or at least someone with a body count). The singer character tries to justify his actions by claiming that everyone is equally flawed and that they would do the same things he does if they were in his situation. His case is not helped by his utterly deranged tone of voice that makes it clear that he doesn't have an ounce of pity for his crimes.It doesn't take a killer to murder
It only takes a reason to kill
We've all got evidence of innocence, it's "everything's coincidence"
The difference twixt fate and free will
Is whether you're singing
Ooh, could you take a look at me?
Am I bad, am I bad, am I bad, am I really that bad?
Ooh, whatever you think of me
If you were in my shoes, you'd walk the same damn miles I do - We All Die Someday: "Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world" constantly reminds you that one day you're going to die, and lists various horrible ways it might happen.One day you're going to die!
No need to fear, 'cause when it's here, you won't be alive!
Try not to think about it!
One day you're doing to die!
(And there's probably nothing after!) - Xylophones for Walking Bones: "Laplace's Angel" has an undercurrent of marimbas in multiple parts of the song, although they're most clearly heard in the first two verses. The music video prominently features skeletons and skulls. Real ones. Notably, a group of skulls sing backup during the chorus, and there is a brief Stop Motion sequence of a skeleton hitting some skulls like a xylophone, which is repeated a few times in the video.
