toner - Austin Town Hall

Nathan’s Favorite Albums of 2020

December 11, 2020 nathan.lankford One comment

It’s been a crazy year, and a depressing year, so perhaps we all retreated more into our record collections to seek out that fleeting joy. On my end, I spent a lot of time running/walking in the ‘burbs, so these are the records that played the most in my life…thus they are my Favorite Albums of 2020. The validity means little to anyone other than myself, but since you stop by, perhaps come by and check out my list!

And, just an FYI…there are 30 bands, and I linked back to Bandcamp pages so you can buy directly from the artists…except that one band because apparently they’re too cool…even though that album rips.

Quick One From TONER

March 25, 2020 RayRay Leave a comment

Oakland based outfit TONER is a band picking up some praise recently from both us and others in the music blogging world. Their heavier take on the shoegaze movement has been both refreshing and unique in a genre that can sometimes get watered down. Today the band have this new, short track called “Smoov” to add to their building repertoire of impressive songs. It’s a quick one at only 1.5 minutes, but it will offer you a short taste of the engaging sounds this band is making.

TONER will be releasing new album Silk Road on April 17th via Smoking Room. Pre-orders are up now.

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Noisy Rocker from TONER

February 25, 2020 nathan.lankford Leave a comment

For some reason, my Tuesday feels like a Monday; the usual energy of the week hasn’t quite kicked into gear, so I needed some slightly more angsty than my typical fare…thus the latest from TONER. The Oakland outfit specialize in that noisy guitar rock at the intersection of pop sensibility and shoegaze. At times, the weight of the song feels oppressive and ominous; layered noises can be heard darting through the song’s background. But, while they stray, there’s still breadcrumbs leading back to the land of pop…and thus I can be gloomy and smile. This jam appears on the group’s new LP, Silk Road, out April 17th.

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Nice Vibe from Toner

March 25, 2015 nathan.lankford Leave a comment

You follow the right people long enough, and eventually you get turned on to some really good things, thus how I came to discover Toner. They were mentioned in passing as a more crystalline Rat Columns, so of course I rushed to check them out. My two cents might see them playing in the same musical space as early Literature, though with a little bit more sprawling noise to their sound…on this track they rush to the punch, then pull back to close it out. The debut self-titled LP from the project will be out on April 7th, but like I said, you should sample it now.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TONER-Thats-Fine.mp3]

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