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Monday, August 11th 2008
TOADIES ARE BACK!!
Sample the new album with this e-card featuring the lead single, “No Deliverance”:
http://www.kirtlandrecords.com/eCard/Toadies/NoDeliverance2.htm
“There’s a certain uneasiness to the Toadies,” says Vaden Todd Lewis, succinctly and accurately describing his band – quite a trick. The Texas band is, at its core, just a raw, commanding rock band. “Things are done a little askew [in the Toadies],” he says, searching for the right words. “There’s just something wrong with it that’s just really cool…and unique in a slightly uncomfortable way.”
This sick, twisted essence was first exemplified on the band’s 1994 debut, Rubberneck (Interscope). An intense, swirling vortex of guitar rock built around Lewis’s “wrong” songs – like the smash single “Possum Kingdom,”, which rocketed to platinum status on the strength of that and two other singles, “Tyler” and “Away.” Its success was due to the Toadies’ organic sound and all-encompassing style, which they aimed to continue on their next album.
Perhaps in keeping with the uneasy vibe, that success didn’t translate to label support when the Toadies submitted their second album, Feeler. Perhaps aptly, things in general just went wrong. It was the classic, cruel story: the label didn’t ‘get’ it. “We got approval for a record,” says Lewis, “and somewhere in the process of handing over the masters to get mixed, it got unapproved. So we went back to the drawing board.” Eventually, some of the Feeler tracks made it onto Hell Below/Stars Above – a sophomore offering that came seven years after Rubberneck.
“It was a very weird, trying time,” says Lewis, who didn’t see the next blow – the sudden departure of bassist Lisa Umbarger – coming. “We went out on tour, and immediately the band split up,” he laughs sardonically. “We kinda shot ourselves in the foot.” They released a live album, Best of Toadies: Live from Paradise, and it was over. But, soon it occurred to him that music was all he wanted to do. “I’m a musician. That’s what I do, and I’m not happy not doing it.” Fans clamored for a Toadies reunion, which Lewis, Vogeler and Reznicek discovered wasn’t such a remote possibility. So, in August 2007, Lewis began writing. “I was pissed off again and wanted to keep goin’,” he says. “I didn’t know what I was writing, right out of the gate, but…it was just coming out very ‘Toadies’.” Lewis called Rez and Vogeler and asked if they were interested in making another record. They were – and the Toadies officially reconvened, signing with Kirtland and recording No Deliverance with David Castell.
“Getting back to the bare knuckles element of the Toadies,” continues Lewis, “is what I really enjoy, after being away from it for so long.” Vogeler and Rez concur. “I’m here and still doin’ it,” furthers Vogeler, “because the music’s good.” And Rez proclaims in his thick Texas drawl, “The Toadies are back in business.” And suddenly, everything wrong is right.