On the heels of releasing its second full-length, Sharon is Karen, Cincinnati Indie Pop/Rock duo Tooth Lures a Fang headlines MOTR Pub this Friday. The free show begins at 10 p.m.
Tooth Lures a Fang’s music revolves around the singing and songwriting of guitarist Zach Starkie and bassist Nic Pater (Jordan VonWahlde has provided drums on their last two albums). Sharon is Karen is TLAF’s first release in conjunction with Lo Fi City Recordings, a Cincinnati label that puts out cassettes, CDR and digital releases by local DIY Indie artists (check them out at loficity.bandcamp.com). Lo Fi City cornerstone act Sleepy Drums is also releasing a new album, Cosmic Imagination Pt. II, in early August and TLAF will be one of the openers of the Aug. 4 release celebration at Urban Artifact.
Tooth Lures a Fang falls in the “lo-fi” category, but on Sharon is Karen (which Pater engineered, mixed and mastered), the raw recording element is mostly only evident when the duo’s loud/quiet dynamic leans loud via over-driven guitar distortion. Album opener “Last Year” kicks in with a blast of Garage Rock fuzz surrounding TLAF’s greatest attribute — high-impact Power Pop melodies and harmonies. The duo’s melody magic is sometimes akin to the ’90s work of bands steeped in the archetypal Beatles/Beach Boys/Big Star Pop stylings, like Superdrag and Teenage Fanclub, as well as more recent hook-centric rockers like Rozwell Kid and Southwest Ohio singer/songwriter (and member of area faves Buffalo Killers) Andy Gabbard. But just as the sounds shift to softer, more spacious atmospherics, the hooks are sometimes structured in a breezier, less compact manner that brings to mind artists like Grandaddy, Pedro The Lion and acts associated with the Indie Pop collective Elephant 6.
The mix of varying moods and tones with ear-worm melodies makes Sharon is Karen an engaging front-to-back listening experience. TLAF moves gracefully from a song spiked with soaring energy and dirty guitar glaze like “Ronald Ray Gun” into the airy sway and low-key tricky rhythms of “Your Kind of Guy," an album highlight (listen below) that sounds like something Jason Lytle, Matthew Caws and Robert Pollard would come up with on a songwriting retreat.
“Floated Away” is the best use of the mood-swinging fluctuations, as the soundscape hovers between a winding, punchy Billy Corgan-like grind and dusky, twinkling ethereality. The album glides to an end with a couple of other standouts — “So Many Strangers” and “Landscape” eschew the inter-song variation in favor of a more persistently dreamy, hypnotic ambiance. Though the seesawing songs are a part of the band’s appeal and never jarring, the album’s finale feels as if Tooth Lures a Fang is tucking the listener in after a long and active day.
Stream and purchase (digitally or on CD) Sharon is Karen at toothluresafang.bandcamp.com.
