NEW YORK (www.canarypromo.com/tober) - The New York City trio TOBER will celebrate the release of their debut CD harajuku no emo ko on Dork Rock Records on Sunday,
September 12th at The Knitting Factory in New York. Joining TOBER for the show will be Seattle's Sushirobo and Raleigh, NC's Schooner.
The Knitting Factory is located at 74 Leonard Street, and the show will begin at 8:30pm and is $8.00 and all ages. For more information, call 212-219-3006 or go to www.knittingfactory.com.
The event is being sponsored by Music for America and Involver. Music for America (www.musicforamerica.org) is a partisan, political nonprofit getting 1 million new voters to participate in the 2004 elections. By throwing parties and concerts all across the country the organization says, 'We're building a decentralized movement that encourages our friends to incorporate political participation into their daily lifestyle, and will ultimately bring about lasting, progressive change in this country.'
Involver (www.involver04.org) is an alliance of independent organizations, venues and artists who are 'pissed off about the state of our country and are facilitating a new political movement with two solutions:
1. Convincing our generation that we have to get involved in politics in order to fix the big problems.
2. Offering ways to take action that will make the country work for us. We can just get pissed, or we can get involved.'
Recorded in Massachusetts, New York City, and Tokyo, Japan, harajuku no emo ko (which is a reference to the emo girls of Tokyo's fashion district who inspired the record) is a catchy and quirky collection of indie-rock and power-pop songs. The band mixes guitars, bass, drums, and vintage synths with a hint of mathrock angularity and witty lyrics that play with pop culture, social hang-ups, and girls. As described by the New York Press, TOBER 'puts out snappy, smirky songs that are catchy and smart.'
'Smart' is a word that comes up a lot when describing TOBER's music. Adam Tober (guitar/voice/synths), Pete Robbins (bass), and Nate Fredette (drums) hold five degrees between the three of them, yet still have trouble, on occasion, finding their pants in the morning. The band is not afraid to acknowledge their snobby educational backgrounds (which include majors in classical composition, Greek and Latin) or their penchant for a little prog rock in their younger days. The guys are nerds and proud of it.
Fortunately, when it comes to songs, Adam Tober (the band's main writer) knows how to use his smarts in a way that results in fun, accessible, endearing material sung by a narrator who knows how to laugh at himself. His sense of humor rings loud and clear in songs like 'My Inability to Talk to Girls', 'The Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education' and in the first single 'Lunchbox', where Tober sings 'I don't want to be the man on your lunchbox. I just want to be the straw in your juice box.'
'I'm fascinated with pop culture and nostalgia,' Tober says. 'Along with everybody's favorite emo themes of boy-meets-girl/girl-makes-out with-boy's-roommate, we reference the stuff we know and love: TV shows, '80s movies, kids with A.D.D., grade school crushes, 'Members Only' jackets – all fair game.'
Tober spent a year living in Tokyo which he says highly influenced the notebook full of songs and laptop full of demos he brought back to the states for TOBER. All the songs on harajuku no emo ko were written in Tokyo and some tracks were recorded there as well. The artwork for the record was created by friend Hal Ikeda, one of Tokyo's rising stars of the indie comic book world and a very in-demand illustrator.
TOBER is currently touring through the summer and fall in support of the new CD, beginning with a set of East Coast tour dates in August.
For more information, go to the band's website at www.dorkrock.com
