Tonstartssbandht are not Swedish. NASA is not just a hip hop acronym.
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One of da brothas from the samother, doing the Tonstartssbandht thing.
The sole reason I didn’t give Tonstartssbandht a listen sooner was their name. Little did I know, Tonstartssbandht aren't another of the cloying Swedish dance/pop groups finding their way to young American listeners’ ears in droves.
Brothers Andy and Edwin (neither of whom are Scandinavian, as far as we know) have recently been producing a sound that draws immediate allusions to the Ducktails, Julian Lynch, Sun Araw school of music. While the experimental duo fit neatly into this cozy, tropical psychedelic niche, (they even opened up for the first two on Tuesday night at Santo’s Party House in Manhattan), there's more going on in the music of Tonstartssbandht. And, like Matt Mondanile, the man behind Ducktails, they're also no strangers to divvying up their output into other projects, the NASA track below exposing their jammy, guitar-n-drum freakouts to what sounds like a single, shitty mic.
At the risk of exaggeration, their new album, An When, is really a conglomeration of everything that’s great about current pop and experimental music alike, without all of the needless chaff and bullshit. Particularly the pop side: Tonstartssbandht's melodies and sing-songy vocals are better than their contemporaries'. That is not to say that the vocal stylings of Matt Mondanile or Julian Lynch are tantamount to nails on a chalkboard, it’s just that the singing of Andy and Edwin plays a more dominant role in their song structure, rather than being a secondary element swathed in distortion.
Tonstartssbandht, "Black Country"
Posted on July 24, 2009. More on: nasa, tonstartssbandht
Thanks for the correction, AX!
— Al on July 29, 2009
CORRECTION: ducktails and julian lynch opened up for tonstartssbandht at santo's
— AX on July 27, 2009
My name is Blake Gillespie and I approve this band. that Nasa joint is on some seriously dope psychedelic jam out. Makes me think of this live recording of "Sister Ray" I have, where the Velvets made a 15minute song even longer and more deranged.
— blake on July 24, 2009