BRENTON NEWCOMB
Staff Writer
On Friday, Feb. 28, the local band, Tooth, had its album release performance for their new ambitious record, “LISTEN TO TOOTH.”
The show took place at Valentine’s Place in downtown Fredonia and featured supporting act Cheap Peach, a punk rock group that is also from Fredonia.
Cheap Peach kicked the show off with their ballistic set and explosive sound.
An interesting cover ensued when Cheap Peach tackled Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” in their own energetic, punky power chord way. Stripped of piano, they took the song to a whole other plane.
Max Gucinski, the frontman of Tooth, summed up the group and said, “They always just bring the house down. They don’t let the punk energy get in the way of their music. They also have some really interesting songwriting.”
Following their performance, the group introduced Tooth by chanting the name of the group’s album, “LISTEN TO TOOTH.”
Tooth took the stage and broke into their rendition of “Taxman” by The Beatles.
They packed a great punch into their set and displayed their skills in funk, blues, rock and jazz into their set.
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Consisting of a mix of their old and new songs, the group was entertaining, fun and gave a great album-warming performance.
Playing directly from their new album, the group sequenced their set with a sling of three songs they call “The Trifecta.”
These three tunes subsequently appear on the album, bleeding into one another.
The songs are special in that they were written similarly both thematically and musically; they were meant to be heard in this specific order.
The tunes which appear on the album include “Dig My Lovin’,” “Never Part” and “Cleanup Crew.”
Gucinski said, “We call them ‘The Trifecta’ because we’ve been playing them in sequence for a while. We never split those songs up from each other. I wrote them as sort of thematic to each other as far as how the keys change to each other.”
The group had guest singer, Aaron Fern, sit in with them for a song and added his superb singing to the performance. Fern collaborated with Gucinski, who acted as a producer, engineer and writer on Fern’s recent album, “Cinematic” and seemed at home on the stage with the group.
“LISTEN TO TOOTH” is Tooth’s first full-length album.
It is remarkable in many aspects from other studio efforts.
The album marks a departure from Gucinski being the sole brainchild behind the group.
Gucinski said, “I started Tooth as a kind of solo project to do on my own.” During the first record, Gucinski was motivated by a sort of existential dread that motivated him to get his music out there. “It was sort of a bedroom-type production kind of deal; it was sort of lo-fi.”
As the group embarks on releasing their new album, that mindset has shifted a bit.
“The thing that distinguishes this Tooth record is, really, the fact that it is a group project. Songs were written by other members in the band including bassist, Miles Pierce, who wrote ‘Union Blues.’”
The group’s previous drummer Matthew Kowalski, contributed to this song as well.
Production-wise, the record has changed partly due to the help of Nick Myers from the sound department. He contributed specifically by helping the group get a great drum sound.
Myers also helped them make the gear switch from budget microphones to high quality gear.
The album release performance was a lively show for those in attendance and got everyone excited to hear the album, which dropped March 1.
Tooth has an upcoming show on March 10 at The Stage in Clarence, N.Y.