Toothy Grin is a punk band. Oftentimes with punk bands, what you see is what you get.
Walking down Hamilton Avenue in Northside after lunch one day, I stopped to look at a pink poster taped to a pole with an image of what I could only call a “monster bong.”
“TOOTHY GRIN – TRIPPY STONER PUNK, VERY SHORT SET, DRONE DRONE DRONE,” it read. I was down for whatever.
I looked them up immediately when I got home, and found an album on Bandcamp with no more information. Their Instagram? Similarly sparse. All I had to go on was an album and a vibe, and like the poster’s aggressive tagline, the music boldly spoke for itself.
“The Early Stuff,” their lone album made up of recordings from February 2023 to March the next year, is only around thirty minutes of music. The ten-minute “Surfs Up” feels like the centerpiece of the record, but doesn’t overshadow the shorter tracks in its scope—It’s a relatively straightforward post-punk tune that just won’t quit.
The album as a whole, though, is anything but straightforward. The breezy “Take Me Now” gives way to a sludgefest on “Blueberry,” followed by, surprisingly, an organ on track four.
Crunchy production throughout lends a bit of connective tissue to an otherwise eclectic mix of songs and interludes. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t work—“Clueless (but better)” gives Teen Suicide with its hazy hopelessness, kicking off the droney final leg of the album. Where there were once birds chirping on the opener, the ending is a brief psych-drone fever dream.
Toothy Grin are playing shows around town if you’re in the know. From their Instagram, “our next show is in College Hill on July 3rd. Back yard burner with some heavy hitters. DM for address”.
You can find them @toothygrinband on Instagram. You know what to do.
CityBeat’s local band highlight is part of a new weekly series that showcases the region’s talented musicians. Last week, we featured the Silkies. Click here to check that out.