Tallows

A little bit of everything went into Tallows’ Memory Marrow, and they’re all over the board when it comes to pinning down the sound they create. It’s fun to try, though, so I settled on “Newton’s Cradle of math rock crunch hop.” It’s hauntingly choppy, without warning, and filled with breaks of fist-clenched triumph. Tracks such as “Flat Bones” and “Soft Water” sprout before you like healthy, green leaves before evolving into fields of blazing kudzu, free to roam and out of control. Memory Marrow makes for a solid album and an interesting listen. - The Wild Honey Pie

Expectations can be a real pain in the ass. With today’s digital release model, hype trains traverse the Internet at breakneck speeds, often before a proper album is released. One or two great songs can set the bar so extraordinarily high that it will never be attained, much less cleared.


When Tallows’ two-song demo surfaced on their Bandcamp site last November, expectations mounted in anticipation for a proper full-length. This was understandable, given the promise exhibited by these four fresh-faced locals on both “Soft Water” and “Small Talk” (the aforementioned demo), songs that were staggering in their conceptual ambition.

Nine months later, we have Memory Marrow, an equally staggering full-length debut that sees Tallows pushing — and often shredding — the envelope in which their demo was packaged.

Musically, the album isn’t really a departure, per se; it’s a progression, both in sound and composition. The instrumental palette is expanded to include a heavy electronic influence, while the arrangements have become even more quick-witted and intricate. And despite its touchstones (of which there are several: twee pop, dub, math rock, et al.), Memory Marrow exists in a realm occupied by no one else, locally or beyond.

These nine songs are simultaneously epic and restrained, playful and resolute, calculated and from the heart. Tracks like “Flat Bones” and “High Brow” stimulate the body, the brain and the spirit. Perhaps most importantly, Memory Marrow represents a sea change in Oklahoma music, one that could potentially render conventional wisdom — and thus, expectations — irrelevant. —Zach Hale - Oklahoma Gazette

Tornare al lavoro dopo le vacanze estive è sempre complicato. Riprendere il ritmo è davvero una fatica perchè la voglia e la capacità di concentrazione sono ancora poche. E se ci aggiungi il molto lavoro arretrato accumulato, questa combo genera strane alchimie il cui risultato immediato non è altro che fomentare la mia malcelata ipocondria.

Che c’entra tutto questo con la nuova review di oggi? Assolutamente nulla. O forse si. Non so. Ho uno strano fastidio al naso che non riesco a spiegarmi…Eccovi i Tallows e il loro interessantissimo debut album Memory Marrow.
Forse i più attenti avranno notato che nei mesi passati più volte avevamo postato nelle nostre pagine socialmediatiche quelle che erano state le prime canzoni messe in rete dalla band dell’Oklahoma: Soft Water e Small Talk lasciavano infatti ben presagire e per questo avevamo seguito il gruppo con attenzione.

Qualche settimana fa escono il video ufficiale di Soft Water e 1414 ad anticipare ufficialmente l’uscita di questo debut che conferma appieno le prime ottime impressioni.

I Tallows mettono assieme un disco ottimamente bilanciato. Un elettropop sperimentale à la Animal Collective o Francois and the Atlas Mountains (così come Vadoinmessico) mescolato ad un approccio più “pacato” vicino a gruppi come Local Natives (ma non prendete tutto questo troppo alla lettera). Pieno di suoni che si rincorrono e intrecciano senza mai strafare, il disco ha forse proprio nella già nota Soft Water uno dei miei pezzi preferiti, ma anche la prima traccia del disco, Everyone & a Telephone, così come High Brow meritano una menzione speciale.

Un album davvero interessante, dove i Tallows mostrano buona personalità e originalità, andando oltre i semplici riferimenti da me citati (sentitevi il pezzo conclusivo, Head Down & in a Hurry). Se a questo unite la felicità personale di aver visto giusto nel seguire con attenzione questa band, capirete perchè questo disco mi è molto piaciuto.

Un piacevolissimo e a tratti spensierato esordio per questa band. Un disco fluttuante. Sul pelo dell’acqua. Che cosa vuol dire? Non lo so di preciso. Ma è così che mi fa sentire. E se volete sentirvi così anche a voi, potete dare un ascolto al disco sulla pagina bandcamp dei Tallows. - Triste Sunset (Italy)

When people only use capital letters it generally means that we’re in trouble. They mean that someone would like to shout at us, but really aren’t brave enough to do so in person. So they do it through e-mail. We prefer telephone tough guys to e-mail tough guys! Both make us laugh though!

Bands are a little different as they use capitals to help their name stand out. So we were sure that TALLOWS weren’t actually shouting at us, but as we’d seen their name used in both ways, we had to check with them. TALLOWS or Tallows?

“Either way is correct!” came the response from Josh.

We blame social media for our mini confusion. Facebook has it one-way, Twitter the other. Who should we trust? Google was no help either! Have we stumbled across a question that the biggest social networks and search engines can’t answer?

We’ll end this insight into the questions that grip our collective mind there shall we?

Even if TALLOWS had chose the capitilised version as if they were shouting, Josh’s voice is one that we would probably enjoy being shouted at with! There is a youthful lightness in his tone that could never be construed as threatening, so we imagine it to be a pleasurable experience over a daunting one.

A great example of this is his a cappella part in 1414. You can hear this for yourself as we’ve thoughtfully put the video for 1414 at the end of the blog.

There is real strength in his voice too. There needs to be to make his words stand out from the powerful, textured and intricate sound that TALLOWS kick out.

Memory Marrow is an audibly diverse debut from this band from Oklahoma. It stands apart from anything that we’ve heard from bands from this part of the world before.

From the rousing, pulsating start of Everyone & a Telephone, through the drum driven Soft Water to the math pop of High Brow. There is a lot to keep your ears engaged throughout.

Mothball (hidden under our play button above), is the track that we keep coming back to though. To our ears it contains all the elements that are dipped in and out of in the other tracks, and delivers them all in one bundle of sound. “This is what I call home!”

We know now that we’ve done nothing wrong and we’re safe from a good telling off. All we’ve done, in our own little way, is to help unearth a band that has the potential to out shine all Oklahoma bands that have gone before them. Hansun are wetting their beer making pants! - Amazing Radio

It’s hard not to listen to Memory Marrow without your mind traveling outdoors. Despite the synthetic textures and twists used liberally throughout, there’s an inherent earthiness to Tallows, irrevocably wound to nature much in the way Youth Lagoon, Band of Horses and Local Natives all are.

And if those bands’ songs feels made for the forest, Tallows is the same for the water: Majestic, natural and beautiful all the same, but diving into the unexplored depths instead of soaring above the trees.

Musical moments as beautiful as found in the bridge of “Soft Water” are hard to find, where you feel the band cannonball into the quiet of the lake before surging up with a deep gasp of air into the summer air above. Lead-in “Flat Bones” is as jittery and addictive as nicotine, bouncing from a saucy opening bit to a biting, punctuated chorus where singer Josh Hogsett can flaunt his charmingly shy and youthful delivery.

The Oklahoma City outfit seems discontented with placing its feet firmly into the freak folk soil, though, regularly dipping its toes into all sorts of adjacent subgenres, all while maintaining its footing. The four-piece flirts with skying electro pop, best executed and exemplified in “1414,” tethered to a Radiohead meets Passion Pit hook. Tallows lets out a wolfish, We Were Promised Jetpacks-like snarl on the harder turns on opener “Everyone & a Telephone” and closer “Head Down & in A Hurry,” while flirting in math rock territory in “High Brow” and “Small Talk.

It’s a strong collective effort with all the members getting their due, be it the epic, cascading drums of Jay Sullivan (“Soft Water”), shimmery programming and guitar work of Richard Lindsey (“1414?) and soulful bass groove of Adam Thornbrugh (“In All Reality”) … and it’s only because of this cohesion that Memory Marrow is as successful as it is.

The album comes just short of a year since the Oklahoma indie outfit formed, but when something comes as natural as this appears to, quality doesn’t take long to manifest. It’s as solid a debut as conceivable, and luckily for us, there’s a lot of the world left for Tallows to explore.
- Dual Tone

Just when you thought new music had closed up shop for 2012, one of the best new acts of the year rears their head. The project of Josh Hogsett and a few currently anonymous friends, Tallows merges influences and sounds ranging from Death Cab For Cutie, Fleet Foxes and recent success story fun. producing these fantastic two debut tracks. Perfectly rounded indie pop at it’s most accessible, enjoyable and coherent, Tallows are one of the finest new bands of the year. - Crack in the Road

Oklahoma-based band Tallows exhibit a remarkable balance between fist-pumping guitar sections and cute, restrained vocals. Sitting somewhere between unsung heroes The Pomegranates and the more celebrated The Shins, this “demo” track, ‘Soft Water’, is one of the more uplifting pieces of music you’re likely to come across for quite a while. - DIY Magazine

I’ve held a grudge against Oklahoma City since the Sonics were sold back in 2006 (fuck you Schultz, Bennet and McClendon), but recent newcomers Tallows might just be able to mellow my disdain. They sound a little like Fleet Foxes with a backbone, with the ability to grab the attention of people like myself who don’t usually listen to music with, you know, guitars and shit. This clearly isn’t my forte, but if “Soft Water” and “Small Talk” are any indication, these dudes are be going places. The second good thing to come out of OKC after The Flaming Lips? I think so. Stream/download/do whatever you want with their first two demos below. - The Astral Plane