>> Featured Artist: Smoosh
Hype hype hype! Get out your notepads. The Toaster brings you the freshest, cutest thing since The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. It's Smoosh, the 12- and 14-year-old sister duo out of Seattle who learned with Jason McGerr, drummer of Death Cab for Cutie fame.
While the Toaster isn't sold on all the song, we are all impressed with their sense of melody and, hell, we don't know any pre-high schoolers who can do a whole lot better. Still, we can't decide whether a $25 show at the 9:30 Club with the Eels this Sunday is worth it...
And, as if they weren't lobbying us to attend, "I Would Go" is one of catchier tracks we've heard. One thing is certain: we can't get enough of the "Nah nahs" at the end. So damn endearing.
>> Album Lookout: Puzzles Like You
Mojave 3 - Released: June 6, 2006 (today!) 4AD
When Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell get together, they make great music. The Toaster found them via Lil' Sis and Excuses for Travellers (2000). It was great summer night-driving music, as long as you weren't anywhere near the verge of falling asleep, of course.
The newest LP, Puzzles Like You, is by all accounts a little peppier and guitar-poppy than past efforts. From what the Toaster has heard, we can't complain. Three listens to "Breaking the Ice" and we were hooked. It still pounds the pavement on a summer night like the best of 'em, to be sure; except this time, you're 44 percent less likely to fall asleep at the wheel.
>> Reverting to: 1978
Some call him the Fifth Beatle. [As far as the Toaster is concerned, that's a title reserved only for Murray the K (not really).] Still, the passing today of legend Billy Preston at the age of 59 is sad news for all who loved everyone who ever played with the Beatles and otherwise excellent music.
We leave you with his take on "Get Back" from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie soundtrack, which Mister Toaster expected to be a train wreck. And it wasn't. Preston handles the vox quite well, even respectfully replicating the "With her high-heeled shoes and her low-necked sweater" rap at the end. And, boy oh boy, does he nail that electric piano part!
Here's a toast to the keys.
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