The Wonder Years drop acoustic ‘The Upsides’ track to honor anniversary

The Wonder Years just dropped a new version of an old song to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their record The UpsidesThe band will also play the record in full at Slam Dunk Festival in May.

In a post to social media, the Wonder Years thanked their fans for the success of the record and when they felt they had finally “made it.”

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The Wonder Years took to social media today Jan. 27 to comment on The Upsides, announce some news and drop the first song from their upcoming acoustic EP Burst & Decay (Volume II).

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. Its not like a few things changed. Everything changed and we honestly haven’t entirely decided how to best honor that but we figured we have all year to figure it out. For now though, we do have two things planned:⁣

First, right now, you can hear the version of Washington Square Park that appears on Burst & Decay (Vol. II). WSP was the first song we released from The Upsides. It was the song that started the groundswell and so it feels appropriate to release this new look at the song on the 10th Anniversary. This is our consensus favorite song on the EP.

We had such a fun 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.⁣

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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 played 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 play 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. 

Hear a snippet of the rerecorded “Washington Square Park” and listen to the full track below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B703XsZDrHg/

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Burst & Decay (Volume II) comes out Feb. 14, 2020 and can be preordered here. The Wonder Years are hitting the road starting Feb. 20 with Free Throw, Spanish Love Songs and Pool Kids for a very special tour. They will be performing two separate sets; one acoustic and one electric. Tickets are available here. A full list of dates is below.

Dates:

2/20 — Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
2/21 — Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
2/22 — New York, NY @ Webster Theater
2/23 — Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head
2/25 — Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
2/26 — Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
2/27 — Nashville, TN @ Cowan
2/29 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall

3/1 — Dallas, TX @ Canton
3/3 — Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
3/4 — San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park
3/5 — Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
3/6 — Las Vegas, NV @ Freemont Country Club*
3/7 — Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theater
3/8 — San Francisco, CA @ G.A.M.H

3/10 — Salt Lake, UT @ The Depot
3/11 — Denver, CO @ Summit
3/13 — St. Louis, MO @ Ready Room
3/14 — Detroit, MI @ The Majestic
3/15 — Chicago, IL @ Concord
3/16 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
3/18 — Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
3/19 — Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
3/20 — New Haven, CT @ Toads Place
3/21 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore

*Without Pool Kids

Tell us your favorite track off of The Upsides in the comments below!

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