What? It was all Discmans, FM radio, and the tail-end of the flannel era when Toadies frontman Vaden Todd Lewis offered to take us “behind the boathouse” to show his “dark secret” on the band’s 1994 crossover hit “Possum Kingdom.” But put on the Toadies’ brand new record, No Deliverance, and the fourteen years since all but disappear.
Lewis originally spilled details about the group’s reunion to SPIN.com this past spring, calling the new batch of songs “the most bare knuckle record” he’s ever worked on, and when we premiered “No Deliverance,” the aggressive first taste from new LP, Toadies certainly delivered on the promise. Album opener and domestic disturbance tale “So Long Lovely Eyes,” cements the claim as the punishing power-chord crunch kills relentlessly from the get-go, with Lewis growling profanities like it was still the Clinton years. No Deliverance drops Aug. 19 via Kirtland Records.
Who? Beginning in 2001, a seven-year hiatus saw Toadies vocalist/guitarist Vaden Todd Lewis working with his other creative outlet, the Burden Brothers — but some musical chemistries just can’t be matched. After a few phone calls, Lewis re-enlisted Toadies drummer Mark Reznicek and guitarist Clark Vogeler, and even without original bassist Lisa Umbarger, the Fort Worth, TX alt-rock band felt whole again and set out to make their third album and first since 2001’s Hell Below / Stars Above. Now featuring Doni Blair on the low-end, Toadies plan to head out on extended tour in support of No Deliverance.
Fun Fact: The Toadies have always been a fan of some light-hearted self-mythologizing, perpetuating a bevy of rumors including that their manager enjoyed decapitating Barbie dolls, that drummer Reznicek had become a U.S. Olympian as an archer, and even that original bassist Lisa Umbarger donned a furry costume and acted as an Ewok in a Star Wars movie.
Now Hear This: The Toadies, “I Am a Man of Stone”
