A music blog dedicated to my ever-expanding tastes. A musical journey with endless pitstops along the way. Bringing you the best of what I see and hear.
While my discovery of Brooklyn's Toebow was largely in part from being born out of the remnants of Bennington College formed experimental psych folk collective BOBBY, it didn't take very long for Toebow to win me over as very much their own thing as genre-eluding songcraft was pretty much all Toebow shares with their former member's band. Originally christening themselves as "cartoon rock", Toebow's evolution has been an exciting treat - and one that their recorded output only tells half the story. Initially seeing them for the first time at the record release show for their debut Spirit Mane EP and attending as many of their shows as I could since, I quickly realized the disconnect between their live and recorded out - as many crowd favorites have still yet to see the light of day even with the release of their debut full length Themes back in 2019. But as the quintet ready another album and the subsequent release of longtime favorite "Kitchen", Toebow's recorded output gets closer to resembling their absolutely dynamic live sets.
Considering how frequently Toebow give access to their instrumentals, it's not hard to see that that's the facet that they're most proud of. And it's understandable why. From the skittering start-stop drum entrance and the ping-pong guitar lines, Toebow certainly know how to put their best foot forward. From the moment you hit play, "Kitchen" is a beguilingly lush textural tapestry. Toebow's lyricism is always delightfully vague - serving the purpose of the song but otherwise revealing no more of its secrets and that's very much the case here. Each instrument - from its two guitars, drums, synths, bass, and five-part vocal harmonies are effortlessly blended to create this absolutely resplendent kaleidoscope of sound.
Last year the release of their debut Spirit Mane EP saw Brooklyn based quintet Toebow offering their self described brand of "cartoon rock" to more than those lucky enough to see them play one of their spirited live shows in their adopted hometown and now almost a year later the band are releasing their debut full length album Themes.
Since my discovery of them through word of mouth, their from-the-ashes association with the Vermont psych pop collective BOBBY, and as many live shows as I could possibly manage in the year between their EP and eventual album release, I have come to know Toebow as an incredibly reliable band with a unique vision. Part of the fuel for that lies in their collaborative nature and ability to follow almost every musical idea that comes their way to some sort of conclusion. This method of collaborative composition has led to guitarists and vocalists Martin Zimmermann and Nate Ulsh joking referring to themselves as an idea band.
Though she has since moved on, both to form her own project Uni Ika Ai as well as becoming a member of The Dirty Projectors, Maia Friedman is featured the first single as well as elsewhere on Themes. Considering how heavily group harmonies and intricate instrumental interplay factor into the band's core dynamic, "Bed In Breakfast" is a bit of a curveball; a mellow sunrise greeting number. Yawny and languid without remaining utterly static.
While "Bed In Breakfast" is a bit surprising in its restrained energy, some of the elements I've come to know from the band's live set are present: the harmonies, the vocal hand-offs, and the springy twang of Zimmermann's guitar occur in the subtler slow jam.
"Bed In Breakfast" much like the songs on Spirit Mane exists in a world of the band's own creation. The lyrics are presented without much exposition or extrapolation. With songs like "Starfucker" or "I'll Be Gone", Toebow is building its own mythology and the references don't receive much in the way of explanation. To Toebow's credit, they don't really need them. Much of Toebow's brand of playful, vibrant colored psych rock is about capturing a particular mood than narrative fortrightness and "Bed In Breakfast", with its bedhead lethargy feels like a downright lucid dream.
Toebow's debut full length Themes is out May 24th on Imaginator Records. You can pre-order it now.
Brooklyn based art pop quintet Toebow essentially exist at a nexus point of my musical interests. Originally consisting of former members of Vermont experimental dream pop collective BOBBY in singer/guitarist Martin Zimmermann and singer/keyboardist Maia Friedman before her departure to focus on her other project Uni Ika Ai, Toebow occupy a similar though not congruent space of communal music making that exists largely on its own merits. The band have spent the better part of five years refining their incredibly texture based form of their self-described "cartoon rock" and establishing an identity entirely separate from their self-mythologizing former band. With songs like "The Return of Toebow", Toebow aren't averse to a little self-mythology however where Bobby used it as method to obscure and create a sense of something bigger than the rotating cast of musicians that formed the Tom Greenberg led collective, Toebow play at it with a tongue-in-cheek nature that definitely seems like a sly wink to those astute enough to know the band's history.
Spirit Mane, the band's debut EP, finds the band in peak form after years of playing together. It's an album that's been forged through their own internal sense of community as well as their live exploits and short but sweet, the four song EP is a perfect encapsulation of the various influences and sounds the band has access to without it seeming like a jarring jukebox selection of styles. Awash in psychedelic guitar riffs, synth tones, and four (occasionally five) part harmonies - Spirit Mane saunters through a diverse collection of sounds. From the technicolor speckled prog rock of album opener "I'll Be Gone" to the harmony laden tribal math folk of the EP's eponymous "Spirit Mane", Toebow manages to wrangle all of the varying shades of psychedelia into a cohesive and surprisingly accessible part of their sonic identity as they effortlessly weave elements of vibrant colored psych rock, pop, and folk with far more softer touches of the electronic than the band's earlier drum-pad/sample days. Though vocal duties often shifts between Zimmerman, guitarist Nate Ulsh, and the departed Friedman (who still guests on much of the EP), the repetitive mantra-like quality of the lyrics give a sense (especially in the pulsing, world music recalling "Belong") that Toebow's treat vocals as another brush by which to paint with. That's not to say there's no thought put into lyrical content - there is. But Toebow introduces lyrical narratives quickly with the first one or two lines and allow the arrangements to color them: the interplay between lyrics and arrangement interlocking to provide the full breadth of Toebow's narrative vision.
Spirit Mane is an artful balance of style and influence with original thought as well as lush arrangements with rhythmic density. There's a multitude of moving parts in any one Toebow song but the band never let their songs appear overstuffed - providing a host of layers without hindering an ease of movement. Toebow's song's are compositionally dense without sounding so and that's a feat in and of itself honed by years of familiarity. Spirit Mane, though a cohesive debut, essentially acts as a appetizer - an actual musical document for fans and new listeners alike unable to catch the band's spellbinding live set that provides a brief but well-rounded view of what the band is about.
Toebow's debut EP Spirit Mane is out now and you can snag it from the band's Bandcamp. The band are also in the midst of a residency at Three's Brewing and the final night of their residency occurs on May 15th. If you're in Brooklyn make sure to catch them with Home Body and Fieldings.
