SOUNDTRACK: TŌTH-Tiny Desk Concert #967 (April 13, 2020)
For reasons I’m unclear about, I thought that Tōth was a heavy metal band. Well, they aren’t. At all.
The last time we saw Alex Toth at the Tiny Desk, he was standing against the shelves, trumpet to his lips. He performed in 2015 with Rubblebucket and his partner Kalmia Travers was singing lead. This time around, Alex sings about their relationship’s end in the song “Copilot.”
It’s a quiet song with gentle guitar and throbbing synths from Ben Chapoteau-Katz. Alex Toth sings softly and drifts into a high falsetto during the chorus. There’s even some whistling.
“Copilot” is one of two songs Tōth performed at the Tiny Desk from his album Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary. These songs are thoughtful, honest reflections on the end of his personal relationship with Kalmia Travers (although it continues professionally).
The arrangements here are spare but textured with bits of Alex on trumpet and touches from Ben Chapoteau-Katz on sax and electronics. The rhythm section of drummer Rebecca Lasaponaro and bassist Ryan Dugre pin it all together.
Rebecca Lasaponaro drums with And The Kids and she is fantastic. Her drumming here is a bid more subdued, but she has a lot of electronics at her disposal which is fun.
“No Reason” is a slower song which features some mellow drums, but also some lovely twinkling keys and Toth’s trumpet solo in the middle.
He says he’s thrilled to be drinking tea out of an NPR mug at NPR.
Up next is an excerpt from a new record:
The new tune “Turnaround (Cocaine Song)” is a funny/sad (and I’ll assume true) tale of poorly timed indulgence at his Aunt Mary’s funeral in New Jersey.
It’s a slow meandering (silly sounding) story about an embarrassing incident involving cocaine. There’s a muted trumpet solo and a simultaneous sax solo from Chapoteau-Katz.
Toth says “Juliette” has an amazing and weird video starring Maya Hawke from Stranger Things. There’s also audience participation which he’ll teach during the song. Oh, he also has to take his beanie off.
The song begins with everyone shouting wha wha / wha wha ooh ooh. A simple bass line from Ryan Durge runs through the whole song as everything else is quietly performed (including more sax solos). The song is sweet and odd but pretty catchy.
At the end, while everyone sings along, Toth recites a romantic scene
there’s a double rainbow and children dance all around us with ice cream cones and red balloons and lots and lots of puppies!
Sometimes I’ll see a band at my desk and wish I could jump in and join. That’s what happened when Tōth played the Tiny Desk. I felt a deep connection to both the fun and emotion in their music. Besides, I loved their outfits.
I’m not sure how memorable these songs are, but they are sure fun to listen to.
[READ: April 30, 2020] “Five Stories”
Here is yet another installment of microfiction from Diane Williams.
Every time I read stories from her I try to imagine how they were constructed. I have considered that she takes pieces from other stories and jams them randomly together into short fiction. But now I’ve decided that the way she writes her stories is that she writes a longer story and as she edits it, she accidentally deletes more than she meant to but then just leaves it.
Her stories just leave me going… huh? (more…)
I Just Read About That... 