"you make me want to Pirouette while bleeding through the briars" photo by Matthew Danser
When I first heard the ever so curious indie rock post punk-esque track Pirouette from Chapel Hill. Greensboro, North Carolina's Toothsome I didn't know what to make of it. I knew I liked it. The falling guitar notes around heavy bass and beat while keys push proggy sort of garden rock vibes was (is) densely beautiful but it is Tom Sowders urgent, sort of exasperated vox casting out some truly interesting and albeit perplexing words that had me scratching my head but smiling all the while. Instead of picking out some of the curious prose and deconstructing I would rather share what the band has to say:
[During a shelter-in-place, self-quarantine situation, it's easy to dream of baboons shrieking at night while bickering about chores during the day. In Pirouette, singer Tom Sowders juxtaposes self-criticisms of cowardice, of not saying sorry, of "smoldering for no reason," with fantastical images of freedom: windmilling with knives by a river, confessing love for everyone, blissfully "pirouetting through the briars." This is distilled domesticity, fraught with primal imagery and displays of primal affection, all while "the drains need snaking."]
The song is from the band's "Shark Eggs / Pirouette" single and maybe side SIDE A (Shark Eggs) informs SIDE B and vice versa. "Shark Eggs", winds up a bit more, pushing 90's College Rock tones in raw ways. Sowder's vocalizations feel a bit Goth pop at times too but after hearing both sides with Toothsome's divergent ramblings and truly dynamic musical narration I am feeling a heady car crash of bands like Miracle Legion, Guided By Voices, REM, Dinosaur Jr, Interpol and find them vastly interesting.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
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Indie rock band from Chapel Hill/Greensboro, NC.
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