Toadies – Rubberneck – Review

Toadies

Rubberneck (Interscope)
by Autumn Ober

Okay, so you might think the name leaves something to be desired. So does the word ejaculation, and everyone knows there’s more to that than…

Straight truth: Toadies make music that acts like a drug. You try it once – you like it. Twice, you start integrating it into your personality. Three times and you smack your roommate upside the head when he/she, like an ignorant fool, tries to turn it down to tell you the phone’s for you. Let yourself zone-out for a moment, and you will zone-in muttering the lyrics to “HAPPYFACE”. (Hopefully in the absence of small, impressionable children.)

This band is damn good. It gives the listener a body buzz. It causes one to rock-out in the most public of places if heard through a walkman, (yeah, asshole, that was me at Marshall’s) and feel proud to be doing so.

They’re a tight, fast alternation between punk’s three chord guitar slam and hardcore metal’s intricate lead. Bassist Lisa Umbarger lends the band their signature sound (ala Les Claypool) and makes your whole body groove, slappin’ in virtual perfection to a hard drumline. Clear, minimized vocals that, for some reason, catch in the memory and refuse to leave. When they hit, they hit hard, with enough power to leave the hair on your scalp vertical. And best of all? They’re not too clean – the music leaves the impression that it would rock equally if heard live.

SOMETHING’S GOIN’ ON IN TEXAS. Don’t believe me? Listen to Rubberneck and then DENY IT. On this, their Interscope debut (they’ve done two indies previously), they’re making shit happen in a big way, shit they’ve earned over the last four years. They even won “Best New Band” in the Dallas Music Awards (if you can’t believe me).

Skip a beer run and buy this sucker. It’s worth every damn penny.