Listen: Toebow - "Bed In Breakfast"

Photo by Dave Herr

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. 

Listen: Offer - "Offer"

Photo by Gareth Kime

Late last year when Harry Burgess of Adult Jazz and Jack Armitage aka Lil Data premiered their collaborative project Offer with the pastoral hymnal reminiscent twelve minute debut single "Day Away", they teased more music on the horizon. Now nearly five months later, they've loosed eponymous single "Offer" which trades the meticulous unfurling craftsmanship of "Day Away" for a much more insistent slice of cacophonous experimental pop.

Where "Day Away" was narratively focused and every element of it's composition served to heighten the track's sense of drama, "Offer" is all lyrical coyness  and compositional grandeur. Trying to wrestle against and distract from its vulnerability with ear-catching pyrotechnics. Burgess quickly dispenses with the lyrics early - presenting nearly every iteration of bridge-hook-chorus before the song is even half over and that's when things truly get unpredictable. Armitage sets out a flurry of spectacular effects, previously building throughout the tracks verses and first and secondary choruses and Burgess' voice becomes but an other instrument for him to direct. They're pitched up, doubled, spliced, and otherwise affected to form a part of the track's sort of disorienting tension and compulsory catharsis. "I don't wanna offer it up to you, don't wanna offer to you" Burgess sings, trying to tramp down his feelings but Armitage's stellar production works as the response to Burgess' call as sounds zip and ping and are otherwise loosed. They never quite reach all out chaos but there's a measured sense of disorder: a lack of control without letting everything get completely away from them.

"Offer" and "Day Away" are complimentary, similar in theme if not tone and essentially having their development happen inversely. Where "Day Away" is a gentle crescendo into it's climactic moments - starting from nothing, peaking, and then ebbing away slower and slower until it's brassy fanfare brings things to a close, "Offer" is immediate, frenetic in its presentation without losing the polish on its production. "Day Away" aspired to folk ballad stature with each of its sounds intending to recall something more or less organic, "Offer" doesn't hesitate to utilize effects and sounds that are in no way meant to recall man-made ones.

Listen to the second single "Offer" now:

Listen: The Dodos - "The Surface"

photo by Andy De Santis

Considering Bay area duo The Dodos released not only their seventh studio album Certainty Waves but  singer/guitarist Meric Long's own solo album Barton's Den as FAN last year, I thought it'd be quite some time until we've heard anything even remotely new from the band. And yet after touring behind Certainty Waves last year, Long was feeling particularly inspired and, with a brand new Recording King acoustic guitar, set about chasing said spark of inspiration while it lasted. "The Surface" is the result of one of these post-tour writing sessions.

The appeal of "The Surface" essentially lies in the fact that while one of the most consistent recording acts, the band revisited and challenged their own mythology on Certainty Waves. The result was a record that freed them from the confines of the band they thought they were - that other people had elected as their narrative and allowed them a freedom to experiment with form, instrumentation, and substance. And after a record of exploration, "The Surface" arrives to establish The Dodos likewise flourish under the simplest means as they do their most experimental. While the duo challenged their acoustic guitar and percussion persona on Certainty Waves, "The Surface" returns right to it. Beginning with a langouring prelude punctuated by bursts of chords and which self reference Long's bouts of writer's block, the entrance of Logan Kroeber's drums snaps everything into sharp focus; from cynical self-doubting melancholy to a more spirited probing inquiry. It's a rousing piece of percussive guitar pop not unlike many in The Dodos' oeuvre and yet, there's a freshness to it as it revels in it's own simplicity. It's a testament to the effectiveness of good songwriting and ode of sorts to introspection. "Where do we go from here? The question, it's not the one to answer." Long offers and while it may be incredibly demonstrative of The Dodos' own creative self-inquiry, it's almost universally applicable. What kind of question you ask frames the argument; yields different answers. "The Surface" doesn't intellectualize it to much but captures that very spirit of it

"The Surface", currently a one-off single, is available now as a digital single from Polyvinyl:

Listen: Son Step - "Saucy"

I was introduced to Philly synth pop duo Son Step when I attended a fundraiser show for American Immigration Council they put on at Threes Brewing last May with Renata Zeiguer, Wilder Maker, and Zula. I went exceptionally familiar with Renata Zeigeur and Wilder Maker and had at least heard of Zula but Son Step were a total unknown to me and their set absolutely surpassed any possible expectations I could've formed. Jon Coyle and Joel Gleiser were essentially sat adjacent synth setups and created an immersive wash of kaleidoscopic melodies that held me completely transfixed until even after their set's final notes. They had mentioned that both the setup and the songs were mostly new and I was incredibly intrigued. Their songs were incredibly lush despite the fact that they were essentially stripped down. Though I haven't been able to see Son Step live again since but at the very least the duo have announced their third full length album Fossilillies, introducing it with "Saucy" recorded with former members Chris Coyle and Matt Scarano.

"Saucy" is an absolutely resplendent piece of multi-textured bliss pop. It's a buoyant, jubilant ode to thoughts and feelings that are utterly indescribable. And the duo don't really intend to try. Their lyrics evoke quiet little moments to create emotionally resonant echoes in lieu of actual explanation. Coyle and Gleiser's vocals are effortlessly intertwined into radiant harmonies, absolutely in line with the song's vibrant coloring and light-centered lyrics. Their vocals weave serpentine swaths, stratospheric arcs, and glance like skipping stones on sun dappled waters all the while they create effortlessly dreamy layered soundscapes to accompany them.



Fossilillies, Son Step's third full length album is out May 17th on Grind Select. You can pre-order the record now.

Listen: Renata Zeiguer - "Chega de Saudade"

photo by Katie Vogel

Despite releasing her debut full length album Old Ghost just last year, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Renata Zeiguer has already hard at work on its follow up. While the product of that particular effort remains to be seen for the time being, Zeiguer is offering up an EP called Faraway Business featuring two covers and two alternate takes of Old Ghost tracks "Gravity" and "Wayside".

"Chega de Saudade" is a cover but holds such a place in Zeiguer's musical DNA that not only has an English translation of one of its lyrics inspire the title of Zeiguer's interim collection of songs but she returned to it as a way to sort of center herself musically. Originally written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes and popularized by João Gilberto as a single and also by his album of the same name, Zeigeur tries to achieve a similar intimacy of the original while also experimenting with Ace Tone drum machine from the 60s. For old and new fans of Zeigeur alike, "Chega de Saudade" provides a raw glimpse of Zeiguer's musical influences and tendencies stripped free of Zeiguer's stellar layered arrangements. While Zeiguer's musical history in classical and jazz can be gleaned in her approach both to her own project and involvement in others, her sparse rendition of a bossa nova classic really snaps into focus how much musical styles that are widely characterized by their subtlety has informed Zeiguer's own approach to both songwriting and arranging.



Faraway Business is out April 12th on Northern Spy Records and is available for pre-order now.

Listen: Boon - "Jasmine Seeds"

When I was introduced to the now Philly based duo Boon, it was more or less during a transition period for them. The band had moved from Brooklyn to Philly and effectively shifted direction due the logistics of having half of its band members in different cities: in fact after my initial introduction to them, the following times I saw Boon the sets mostly consisted of Brendan Principato and Drew Sher creating an almost impenetrable mesh of vocal and guitar harmonies and workshopping songs that would eventually become their forthcoming record All Of Us Laughing.

Firmly settled, the band has gone from quartet to duo and back to quartet again and I was interested to see how that would effect their sound which seemed to thrive during this period of displacement. Where previous album effort There's No Saving This House was a beguiling mixture of atmospheric multi-layered drone folk, the Boon I encountered live eschewed both their slow burning tendencies and noisier elements in favor of simpler but no less luxuriant presentation. "Jasmine Seeds", the first single from All Of Us Laughing, finds the sort of middle ground between these two stages of the band. It's a vibrant harmony laden reverie that entrances through its resplendent amble but with drums to keep the pace. It's a song that can seeming go on forever as you're drawn in both by ease of Principato and Sher's vocal harmonies but also the emotiveness they reach during the song's peak but the duo steer the song through minimalistic changes until they finally bring everything to a cacophonous stand still. It's a lovely return from the band and one that ultimately captures the spirit of their creative problem solving and musical talents.



All Of Us Laughing is out March 29th on Boon's own tape label Glass Orchard. You can pre-order the record now.

Listen: Truth Club - "Not An Exit"

photo by Logan Murray

My first encounter with Raleigh pop rockers Truth Club, then a trio but since expanding into a four piece, was in Neptunes on the 2nd night of Hopscotch Music Festival in 2017. I was instantly taken with the band's dynamic - churning around vocalist Travis Harrington with an energy both frenetic and breezy and ability to shift tempos and moods with an impressive amount of ease. It was the strength of that set alone that marked them as a band to watch in my mind even as they seemed relegated to being one of the Raleigh music scene's best kept secrets. With "Not An Exit, the first single from their upcoming debut full length of the same name, the band are making a splash on a much larger stage. 

Their first release since 2017's two song release Interest Meeting, "Not An Exit", with it's sightly off-kilter jangle, quickly establishes itself as an inescapable ear worm before guitarist Travis Harrington's vocals even enter. And when they do, they're a kind of unassuming half mumble that make it all the more effective when certain phrases leap out at you. Harrington is the kind of songwriter that doesn't assume everything he has to say is profound and with that freedom ends up creating some pretty stirring turns of phrase. "Not An Exit" essentially deals with the body as a prison. No matter how confidently you grew up or how normal or cool of a life you've lived, we've all had at least one of those moments that were so jarringly awkward that you've contemplated an escape from your own body; to wink out of existence. Harrington locks onto that in "Not An Exit" but also offers that regardless of how much you might want to escape its inescapable confines, the body is your home. While "Not An Exit" draws its inspiration from the anxiety of post-adolescent youth, it's charmingly mature even avoiding some cliched "it gets better" ending. No, Harrington's closing remarks: "There's not an exit from a form and there's never gonna be" is much more true to life while also striking an uplifting chord. You can't escape your body or its flaws but you can get more comfortable with them and hunker down for the long haul.   

Listen to "Not An Exit":

Truth Club's forthcoming debut full length album Not An Exit out May 3rd on Tiny Engines. You can pre-order the record now on digital or limited edition colored cassette.