C&B Presents: Salt & Samovar
Erm, hiya. C&B here. I’m one of Matthew’s multiple personalities, and he and the lovely Mrs. Toad have left me to guard the valuables while they traipse off on one of their debauched “swinger” weekends to some Sandals resort in the Caribbean, where they’re undoubtedly lounging half-naked by the floating bar and sipping flourescent blue cocktails as we speak. Bon voyage, you little dickenses! If anyone believes that whole Homegame story, well, you have my pity.
Lest you suspect that the Toad has left the fox in charge of the henhouse, I can assure you that I am far too inept at matters technical to do any lasting damage to this budding media empire. In fact, I myself am a grotesquely nerdy fan of Song, by Toad, and so it turns out that Matthew has unwittingly left the family jewels in trustworthy hands after all. You know what I mean (filthy bastards).
Anyhow, I can say without a trace of irony that it’s all about joy hereabouts. To me, anyway. JOY! If you’re like me then many of the songs you’ve heard on this blog will have left you exhilarated and puffed up about music, with the Broken Records’ performance on the first-ever Toad Session being just the most recent example. And since this is ‘da house of mirt’, I want to say a few words about a Brooklyn band I’ve recently discovered called Salt & Samovar. They have a newish self-produced record out aptly titled “Old Joy, New Joy,” and I suppose if pressed we could agree to call it a study in gospel-revival psych-garage honky-tonk swing. Yes, that’ll do. Lots of hand clapping, foot stomping, piano tinkling, lovely full-throated boy-girl vocal harmonies and even some face-melting axework from lead singer/guitarist D.S. Moltz.
But the extra ingredient is love. Each copy of the record is handcrafted by the band and contains a 16-page “hymnal” containing sheet music and lyrics. On album opener “Swallowed A Pill,” Moltz sings without inhibition of the melodies that ensnared him and that have inhabited his dreams from the cradle.
It’s A Sorrow To See
How It’s Entrapped Me
Such A Beautiful
Misery
Perhaps I’m a gross sentimentalist, but this inspires me. I want to be IN this band. Oh! And for what it’s worth, my wife may be an even bigger fan than I. So you see, Salt & Samovar literally brings families closer together. Is there anything they can’t do?
O! Be joyful!
Salt & Samovar – Swallowed a Pill
Salt & Samovar – What Can You Expect
When you babysit a website, how do you know when it goes to bed?
I quite agree that this is the sort of band you’d really want to be in the room with when they are playing tunes. Fantastic. Very little is done this way but it sounds like it’s a band that sits and records in one take. Just playing together.
Yes, there’s a live video on their myspace where they perform Swallowed A Pill on the KCRW radio program Morning Becomes Eclectic. They seem very tight as a band, but very loose at the same time. The singers voices complement each other very well I think.
And even more to the point, James, how do you know when it’s time to change the poopy diaper?
When it’s full of shit, C&B, when it’s full of shit.
Exactamundo!