Happy Birthday to a real one.
Yesterday The Wonder Years‘ iconic album ‘The Upsides’ turned 10 years old, and the band took to Twitter to reflect on its importance, its legacy, and its importance to their journey.
In the reflection of the past 10 years, they also dropped the new version of ‘Washington Square Park’ from their upcoming ‘Burst & Decay’ EP. Speaking on the importance of the track, The Wonder Years shared “‘WSP’ was the first song we released from ‘The Upsides’. It was the first song that started the groundswell and so it feels appropriate to release this new look at the song not he 10th anniversary. This is out consensus favourite song on the EP. We had such a dun time figuring out a new lens to view it through. The challenge with any of these is how to subvert expectation while still remaining true to what made the song resonate in the first place. With the help of Ace and Nik at Lumberyard, we think we did just that and we hope you love it.”
As well as releasing the reimagined and reworked version of ‘Washington Square Park’, The Wonder Years also shared that they’ll be honouring 10 years of ‘The Upsides’ by playing the record in full during their upcoming sets at Slam Dunk Festival.
Talking about the significance of ‘The Upsides’ and Slam Dunk, The Wonder Years shared “Ten years ago at Slam Dunk in 2010 we plated two sets that felt surreal and impossible – an exercise in pure joy. There was no “made it” moment in our career; no defining point when some bigwig label president heard our song and told us we were gonna be stars or something, but SD2010 was emotionally that moment for us. So, we felt like there was no better place to plat the record in full. We weren’t (and I guess still aren’t) sure that people want to hear the record in full, live in 2020 so Slam Dunk will be the test. If it feels good, if the energy is there, then maybe we’ll start planning to do the record in more places before the year is out.”
Read The Wonder Years’ full 10 year reflection about ‘The Upsides’ below:
“Ten years ago today we released a record that shifted the course of our lives forever. There’s no real way to quantify what ‘The Upsides’ did for us personally or as a band. It’s not like a dew things changed. Everything changed, and we honestly haven’t entirely decided how to best honour that, but we figured we have all year to figure is out. For now though, we do have two things planned.
First, right now, you can hear the version of ‘Washington State Park’ that appears on ‘Burst & Decay: Volume II’. ‘WSP’ was the first song we released from ‘The Upsides’. It was the first song that started the groundswell and so it feels appropriate to release this new look at the song not he 10th anniversary. This is out consensus favourite song on the EP. We had such a dun time figuring out a new lens to view it through. The challenge with any of these is how to subvert expectation while still remaining true to what made the song resonate in the first place. With the help of Ace and Nik at Lumberyard, we think we did just that and we hope you love it.
The second thing we’re going to do is play the record in full at Slam Dunk festival this year. Ten years ago at Slam Dunk in 2010 we plated two sets that felt surreal and impossible – an exercise in pure joy. There was no “made it” moment in our career; no defining point when some bigwig label president heard our song and told us we were gonna be stars or something, but SD2010 was emotionally that moment for us. So, we felt like there was no better place to plat the record in full. We weren’t (and I guess still aren’t) sure that people want to hear the record in full, live in 2020 so Slam Dunk will be the test. If it feels good, if the energy is there, then maybe we’ll start planning to do the record in more places before the year is out.
For now, we find ourselves in a familiar place: a place to say thank you. Thank you to ‘The Upsides’. Thank you to the people that listened to it. Thank you to everyone that got the words tattooed on their bodies or carved them into their hearts. Thank you for letting it resonate with you. I believed, writing the lyrics to these songs, that there were other people out there who needed to hear the things that I needed to hear – who were sad, and not entirely sure why and who wanted to get better. Thank you got proving me right.”
Slam Dunk 2020 takes place on…
MAY
23 – LEEDS Temple Newsham Park
24 – HATFIELD Park