The Wilmas

Leftover Records was founded in 1989 in Lawrence, Kansas, by Dave Allman, Jon Harrison, and Mark Johnson, then collectively known as The Wilmas. The band started playing out in Spring 1989 and quickly accumulated a solid batch of original songs. With a post-punk DIY spirit, the guy formed their own independent record label in order to get these songs out into the world: Leftover Records was born. Dave claims he came up with the name. Chris DeLong, design genius, came up with the logo.

The label had one official release, The Wilmas' Songs About Girls EP from late 1989, a delightful two-disc set of 7 inch records containing 5 songs. The EP was recorded at Big Bang Recording Studios, in the back of Richard's Music in Downtown Lawrence, KS. John Mello was the engineer, and Scott Gribble of the Mahoots was the producer. 500 copies were made (thanks to a generous donation from Jon's folks), and a few copies were even sold. But alas, the label name proved prophetic.

David Snyder in The Bob #39 called Songs About Girls "an interesting package." Snyder continues, "It contains five samples of their formative pop-rock sound, across which you can easily hear the scope of their influences: from Joy Division to R.E.M. to the Dead Kennedys to those Creation bands."

The Wilmas actively played around the Lawrence / Kansas City area between 1989 to 1992 and played their last show together on Valentines Day 1994. Dave went on to manage Kill Creek through their signing with Mammoth Records. Jon is the tunesmith behind The What Gives and has played with many other combos over the years. Mark was also involved in a few subsequent bands. For more infomation about these groups, visit the Bands page.

There were a few "unofficial" releases on Leftover Records - these were demo tapes put out by Sunday Drive, a band Mark put together after the demise of The Wilmas. You can listen to The Wilmas, Sunday Drive, and possibly some other bands on the MP3s page.

Although it didn't seem like much at the time, The Wilmas played out frequently during breaks in the academic year, and we've got the flyers to prove it. Visit the Art page to check out some of the flyers, and also the photos page to see the bands in action.

Leftover Media was founded in 2006, partly to archive the Leftover Records past and partly to host worthy new media in need of a cyber shack - music, movies, what have you. If you have any stories about seeing the Wilmas or other bands back in the day, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting.

Copyright © 2006 Leftover Media