Returning after a 25-year absence, Gary Wilson has played to sold out shows (with ticket scalpers!) and raving reviews. Here are a few:
"In 1977, a 24-year-old musician from Endicott, N.Y., released a wonderful, odd album called "You Think You Really Know Me." Combining elements of pop, proto new wave, jazz, avant-garde composition and electronic music, Gary Wilson delivered sincere lyrics, alternately sweet and angst ridden, about the women in his life and his fantasies..." - Neil Strauss, NY Times
"Something about Gary Wilson is different. Many photos show him wrapped in plastic wrap." - MaximumInk.com
"Sporadic shows in the last two years have featured lineups of (check out these awesome upstate-New York names) Wilson, Joe Lunga, Dave Haney, Butch Bottino, Vince Rossi, Rick Maturani, Rick Iacovelli, and the notorious Frank Roma." - sfweekly.com
"To Know Him Is To Love Him: An Interview With Gary Wilson" - Drastic-Plastic.com
"Born in southern New York state, Wilson was proficient in guitar, bass, drums, piano and cello by the time he entered grade school." - Wikipedia.org
"Friday night, The Eye had the very rare honor of both catching the legendary Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates live in some strange small town, but we managed to get some on camera time." - Brainwashed.com
"Wrapped like a mummy beneath layers of cellophane and duct tape, Gary Wilson radiates an enigmatic aura, a persona nonpareil." - Mungbeing.com
"I sat down with a genuine cult personality and creator of the splendid underground classic ‘You Think You Really Know Me’. ... Click on the speaker icon for the full uncut mp3 recording..." - Panpot.ca
"Q & A with Gary Wilson - Avant Garde Musician" - Associatedcontent.com
"What is the "truth" about Gary Wilson?" - Truthexplosion.com
"Little did I know that an exceedingly odd record he made in his parents' basement in Endicott, N.Y., in 1977, "You Think You Really Know Me," would turn Wilson into a cult hero upon its reissue in 2002. " - SignOnSanDiego.com
"The music is a near indescribable mix of new wave weirdness, lounge lizard suavity and hopeless yearning, all emanating from a basement in Endicott, New York." - sleazegrinder.com
"Gary Wilson lay on his side on the stage on Wednesday night, crooning to the top half of a female mannequin that he had knocked over earlier in his set." - Jon Pareles, NY Times
"I usually travel with at least two mannequins, sometimes more. Not so long ago, I think Cindy and Karen got mad at me when I named the album Mary Had Brown Hair. Sometimes they get jealous of each other when we are onstage. I have to lock them away at night." - StonesThrow.com
"I snickered at Frank Doris when he told me he had arranged to take the next day off from work as he felt he couldn't function after seeing Wilson live. He stayed home the next day, and although I went to work, I couldn't function. The show had moved me more than any rock concert had in 15 years." - MusicAngle.com
"Wilson also throws in a few treats from the 70's, including the title track, a free-form Cage-ian romp, where Wilson's guitarist Vince Rossi demonstrates that the percussion instrument with the greatest dynamic range is a closely miked piano string as it's tightened to the breaking point." - MusicAngle.com
"There is another two record 7 inch 45 rpm set from 1980 on MCP Records entitled Invasion of Privacy (MCP 1001). It includes the tunes “Debbie Knows” and “You Were The First” as well as versions of “Cindy” and yet another “Chromium Bitch." - MusicAngle.com
"The point is: Gary Wilson is at heart a performance artist who is very serious about his craft. The person you see on stage and on record is a character, a very carefully constructed character." - MusicAngle.com
"And thus we witness a man in his 50s exorcising demons and fantasies three decades old, surrounded by mannequins and hot, pillow-fighting brunettes on hand to beat his head with handfuls of flour." - Dazed & Confused (UK) September 2004
"From out of an Endicott, New York basement in 1977 came a brilliantly insane record almost no one heard." - WierdoMusic.com
"Gary Wilson is one of the most accomplished figures in the world of experimental/outsider rock music." - TheHighHat.com
"No longer preoccupied with body parts, mind games and make-out parties, he now describes turbulent adult relationships head-on, and seems no less horrified of the whole enterprise." - DustedMagazine.com
"His music combined infectious rock n' roll, insidiously smooth jazz, and avant garde sound collages ala John Cage..." - Gorgeous Entertainment
"They described to me how he used to perform and how bizarrely he used to comport himself on stage - splashing himself with paint and wrapping himself up in tape." - ifp.org
"... sold out two back-to-back shows, which drew hoards of indie hipsters as well as members of his long-time cult of fans." - Pop Matters - The cult of personality
"Wilson created his own unique voice by maintaining an avant-garde mindset." - City Beat: Short Takes
"...smooth-yet-quirky ditties with vague tinges of Steely Dan jazziness and a hefty dose of obsessive-compulsive emotional damage ..." - The Village Voice
"Of college radio oddities, Wilson's 6.4=Make Out is a classic ..." - Free Williamsburg
