Tuxis Giant from Boston and NYC are:
Matt O’Connor – vocals, guitar
Eleanor Elektra – guitar, vocals, accordion, harmonica, synth
Fenn Macon – bass
James Steinberg – drums, synth
Listening to their brand new album: ‘You won’t remember this’.
Let me start by stating something very simple but very important to me. This is a band. Four people playing different instruments, perhaps live in the studio, or doing overdubs, but there is a nice, pure, organic sound here that I have missed. Many times, I get to review an album that is a one-person project, usually a guitar player who can sing and is also quite capable on the bass. The drums end up being quite neglected, sometimes because there is not enough skill to program them, or even worse, because they are sometimes underestimated. So you have very basic rhythms with a very basic sound, which makes the bass lines sound quite basic too, and then on top of that, intricately made guitar parts. Don’t get me wrong, there are albums made like this that are wonderful, but it’s tricky and it requires dedication and extra skill. Plus, you don’t have that nice vibe you get from rehearsing with people in the studio, where parts, riffs and beats emerge organically.
This is exactly what this album sounds like to me. The timing is not perfect, the drums sometimes drag, and the bass is lazy, which helps the expressive and chilled vocals shine a bit more, and the guitar licks or background harmonies come in and out wonderfully.
I got two perfect examples here, two songs that are very different to each other: ‘Heart Surgery’, which is slow and could have been recorded live in a barn where a few select friends came to see the band sharing moonshine and some weed, and on the other side we got ‘Language I Understand’, which is basically a song played later in that party, when everyone is tipsy and high enough to dance and twirl around to this almost punk upbeat track, that the bass is driving excellently!
Their music is between those two extremes, leaning a bit more on the soft and dreamy side. I would love to hear more female vocals in the album, as well as a couple more songs like ‘Little Secrets of the Heart’, which is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s acoustic songs from their fourth album, or even a tiny bit of The Beatles.
In general, I would personally also prefer some more upbeat moments, but there is a vibe here, I understand it, and I am here for it. And that vibe is that of a band that has rehearsed together, played and toured together, and that is priceless.
Written by Spiros Maus
