Tooth Ache

The sheets and the pillowcases were stripped from the bed earlier in the day. They were thrown into the washing machine. They finished that round of intensive cleaning and were limply, soggily thumped into the dryer for the last jog of the process, to regain their stiffness, to earn a flowery or citrus-smelling aftershave. They've never felt like people before - ever in their inanimate lives - but they feel like new people, after all of this. They've got a new lease on life, as they're pulled out in a steamy and relaxing clump, ready for another few weeks of lying prone of a bed and letting people sleep on them, screw on them and whatever else is bound to happen on them. Tooth Ache, the musical project of Burlington, Vermont's Alexandra Hall, makes you long for one of those freshly made beds, one that you can't wait to crack open and slip your legs and body into - so you don't wait. You nap. Even with the windows glowing with the sunlight on the other side of them, you let your urges take over and you retire for a mid-afternoon breather, for a re-grouping. It's music that comes from a shaken place, but it only soothes you back down, to a place where you've felt you need to be to remain sane.

Hall sings on "Wild Horses":
you were uneasy
with the way the prairies leaned into the evenings.
and I had to rock you all night
and tell you everything would be alright.
when we saw the wild horses
you were inconsolable.
oh what unholiness, to rush toward your impermanence.
oh what bliss, to run like this.
you were uneasy
with the way the prairies leaned into the evenings.
and I had to rock you all night
and tell you everything would be alright
while my heart raced wildly
toward nothing.

The idea of prairies leaning into the evenings makes you think of a perfect melting of time into place. It embraces a wildness of time without a harness and of land squirming like a wind-blown sidewalk beneath us. It could be guiding us to that aforementioned bed or it could be moving us alongside the pack of horses that we hear approaching in the distance. - Daytrotter.com

2012 was the biggest year on Daytrotter yet as we posted 970 new sessions! This year also marked the posting of Daytrotter's 2000th session of all-time -- a very special recording with country legend Glen Campbell. Over the course of the last 12 months we welcomed through our doors in Rock Island, Illinois, London, England, San Francisco, California, Asheville, North Carolina, Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee some of the most inspiring and ferociously talented musicians in the land. We've spent an agonizing week trimming that bulky list of greatness down to some slightly more manageable, cream of the crop sizes. Between today and the first day of the new year, we will be posting playlists of what we feel were the Top 200 songs Daytrotter posted this year and the Top 70 Daytrotter sessions of 2012. We of course had a difficult time making these lists this small, but the archive is always here for your happy exploration. So, without further ado, we present to you the Best of This Year In Daytrotter! See you next year. -- Mr. Daytrotter - Daytrotter.com

A Sugarless Toothache Stakes its claim at Sluggo's
By Hana Frenette

When Alexandria Hall, aka Toothache, and I were able to catch up on the phone, she was taking a hike somewhere in Delaware.

Hall is currently on a tour of the U.S. with friend and musician Michael Collins.

“The whole thing spans over a month and three weeks, and we have a show every night.” Hall said. “It’s kind of a figure-eight.”

After skirting along the East Coast and making her way across the vast middle of America, Hall plans to meet up with the L.A.-based band Sissy Spacek and continue the last half of the tour loop until they make it back to her hometown of Burlington, Vermont.

“We got to hang out in Boston for a bit with some friends, and in New York,” Hall said, speaking of the first few nights of the tour. “Once we get away from the Northeast though, there will be less hanging out with lots of friends and more trying of new things.”

The music that Hall is making has been described quite a few different ways. Some people say “sweet dance pop,” but it might just be the name seeping into their brain, making them think sweet things. “Downer pop” has been referenced a few times online, and as much as an oxymoron as that is, it seems to fit at times.

Toothache lends itself more to synthesized sounds and beats, with less techno than one might think when imagining pop.

“You can dance to it, but it’s like a slow dance,” Hall said.

This might be the time to bring back the middle school hand-on-hip/shoulder slow dance.

Although making music is nothing new for Hall, the dance factor is.

“When I was younger I did singer/songwriter type stuff,” Hall said. “I had a punk band and a jazz band, too.”

Hall also grew up playing the piano. Pretty much every area of the music realm was covered at a fairly young age. Until the electronic slow jams started happening.

“I just always really liked playing the synthesizer,” Hall said.

One thing led to another, and next thing you know, she’s touring the country with no band, no songwriter stigma. Just a good old-fashioned synthesizer and some friends who are along for the ride.

Toothache’s full-length album “Flash and Yearn” was released in late October of this year, and will be available at the show for purchase, as well as online via Bandcamp or iTunes. Singles and an accompanying video are also available.

For now, Hall is just enjoying the ride and the chance to do things in each town visited along the way.

“Like right now, we’re actually able to go on a hike and relax,” Hall said. “But once we get to Texas, we’ll have too far to drive each day to really do anything during the day.”

Hall and Collins will be joined at Sluggo’s by Pensacola bands Youth and Horse Hair Belt. Youth will provide dark-dance pop, and Horse Hair Belt will bring psychedelic duo noise. A buffet of sound will most certainly be offered up.

As we end our call, I can hear the tell-tale signs of a walk in the woods. Bird calls, crunching leaves, and occasional chit-chat back and forth between friends, which is quite a contrast to what we’ll be hearing from Hall next: a synthesizer accompanied by beats and the occasional dark, echoing lyric. - Independent News Weekly

Excited about new self-released tooth ache. bandcamp album Flash & Yearn, ten down-tempo almost dancey tracks along the same lines as some of her previous material but a but a lot more crisp. All ten tracks were produced by Burlington, VT weirdo staple Joey Pizza Slice, each one molding Alexandria Hall's now-you-see-me-now-you-don't vocals to fit its surroundings. Words never really escape the echo, but emotional flits rise to the top and more often than not we're tempted to skim them off and ignore occasional beat sloth. Check a download of the first track "Horizon" and a couple more of my favorites streaming below, then buy the whole thing digitally or as a CD when you catch an upcoming tooth ache. show. - Friendship Bracelet

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/16513459?color=dea790" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/16513459">tooth ache. | "skin"</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/weirdcandles">WEIRD CANDLES</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Synth-pop's roots coincided with the rise of the VHS format, along with the pre-auto tracking analog glitches suffered by many an overplayed tape. This subtly warped video meshes perfectly with tooth ache.'s "Skin", their mutually detuned quality elevating the degradation of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops to modern pop practices (video, MP3, 7"). Maybe it's the drum machine, or the decay'd glam of a hypothetical video shoot at the Church Street Marketplace, but "Skin" is a sci-pop joyride. (Chocolate Bobka co-premiere)

Skin 7 inch is out now on clear vinyl via Father Daughter Records - Altered Zones

Alexandria Hall is Burlington's queen of woozy soul.

Alexandria Hall is half-sitting, half-dancing in a chair at Nunyuns, in Burlington’s Old North End, laughing as she imitates her own first appearance in a music video. It was during a recent shoot for her song “Skin,” and the director, who’s also a friend, kept telling her, “Left arm! No, the other left arm!”

“He told me I was just going limp on one side,” she explains. “And then I’d go limp on the other side.” She bubbles up again while doing her one-sided dance moves.

Hall has been writing and releasing “downer pop” songs under the name tooth ache. since 2008. When asked about that description, she admits she never knew it would come up so often in interviews. She picked it to tag the songs on her Bandcamp page, thinking it was better than another choice the DIY music site provides: “It sounds just like everything else.”

While tooth ache. doesn’t sound like everything else, her songs aren’t downers, either. Not entirely, anyway. While introspection and yearning guide the way, there are also manic synth arpeggios and staccato beats on songs like “Skin,” the A-side of her newly released 7-inch single on Father/Daughter Records. When she reaches for a few high notes during the song’s chorus, a sunnier tune stretches its arms, waking up.

It might be better to call Hall’s songs woozy soul. On “Lazarus,” the record’s B-side, she croons the line “Lazarus in the porch light / don’t bring me down” over funky drum hits and a droning synth line that makes you feel like you’re swaying back and forth at the end of a late-night dance party, drink in hand, half asleep.

Hall started writing songs on an acoustic guitar as a teenager. She even went through an earnest singer-songwriter phase, cutting her teeth on folk gigs at Radio Bean. But two years ago a friend left a drum machine, distortion pedal and some keyboards in her basement. She excitedly set it all up and recorded a handful of songs in an afternoon, writing as she went along. Then she posted them on MySpace the same day. She claims it was a joke — at first.

“But then I needed to come up with a name for it,” Hall says. “I’d been thinking about starting a project like that, and I’d been thinking about something to do with teeth and the mouth … I grind my teeth a lot. They hurt a lot. All the time.”

She named the project tooth ache. and started playing gigs around Burlington and Winooski. Her setup was simple: drum machine, keyboard, a few effects pedals. She recorded several more songs, added them to the MySpace tunes and sold them on a CD-R she called Illogically Chronic.

Then, last fall, the Brattleboro-based, folky a cappella girl group Mountain Man received a round of rapturous applause after singing a three-part-harmony version of Hall’s song “Holy Father” during a CMJ Music Marathon showcase in New York City. Videographer and archivist of the New York indie-music scene Ray Concepcion posted a video of the performance on Vimeo and it started popping up all over the Internet.

“I taught [“Holy Father”] to Alex [Sauser-Monnig] and Molly [Sarle] while we were sitting in front of our music building at Bennington College, and then it just went from there,” says Amelia Meath of Mountain Man during a recent call from New Mexico. The trio is currently on a West Coast tour with Jónsi, of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. “It’s a really good song to get people’s attention,” says Meath. “The way that it’s structured is really unique and really exciting to me ... I’m a big fan.”

Soon afterward, Hall received an email through MySpace. It was from Jessi Hector, who was starting a label called Father/Daughter Records. She wanted tooth ache. to be the label’s first act.

At first, Hall didn’t believe Hector was for real.

“I was, like, ‘Send me an email to this email so I know you’re not a scam,’ she recalls, laughing. “’Cause on MySpace you get so many of those people who are, like, ‘I’m from a promotions company, blah, blah, blah.’”

Father/Daughter pressed 500 copies of Skin 7 on clear vinyl. Hall’s friend Matt Mayer, a cofounder of Burlington’s cassette label NNA Tapes, designed the sleeve. The cover image is a Polaroid of Hall laying on her side on a bed in a low-lit room, arms wrapped around herself, facing away from the camera. She looks like a little kid suffering from a headache. Or … well, you know.

Positive reviews have popped up on small music blogs and now Hall is about to hit CMJ for her own series of showcases, put on by Father/Daughter, the blog Micro-Pixel-Rites, curator Chocolate Bobka and others.

Though she is excited for the shows, this isn’t her first time playing in New York City. In the past year Hall has been there, done that. In fact, she says she’s just as likely to find an enthusiastic crowd outside of a city as in it. To wit: She recently opened for Deakin from Animal Collective at Boston’s Middle East to a less-than-impressive audience.

The club had d - Seven Days

Another single came my way from father/daughter Records, home of that great Family Trees single, this one from a practically local artist Tooth Ache out of Burlington, VT.

There's a fine line between The Cosmetics and someone like Zola Jesus, in core structure. It's more than just a lean towards minimal instrumentation and a recording aesthetic difference. The tone is decidedly more sinister. Maybe I'm just talking about what they consist of when you examine the pieces...mechanical rhythms, synth melodies. So essentially it's up to the delivery to separate it from something to hit the dance floor. If you even want to separate it. I have to a little to get away from that soulless dance music that gets pumped out of terrible clubs.
Alexandria Hall has a more understated, softer voice than Zola, but the underlying mood is the same for me. It's so ghostly, the vocals fade into pure melody on the A-Side "Skin". Once I found the lyric insert the song changed, the obscure hints at narrative, it could probably stand on it's own and the way she sets this on the mechanics of beats is unique. There's nothing happening in the instrumentation that would lead to this delivery. Sort of an angelic U.S. Girls in idiosyncratic melody, her voice can carry both of these tracks with even less than we're given.

Th B-Side, "Lazarus", is more of her otherworldly vocals over clicks and deep moog. It's somber and cold and the vocals show up like a sparrow in the post nuclear landscape. Just all of a sudden it makes sense, where have you been?

How this comes out of VT, I don't understand, but then maybe this is a case for the lessening gap between geographic musical styles. Or that talent doesn't pay attention to where it grew up.

Get this and Family Trees at Father/Daughter Records.

I want to hear what they release next. - 7 Inches

BY IAN NELSON » My first tooth ache. experience was maybe a year and a half ago. I caught her playing some loft space in Northampton, MA with Eric Hnatow and some others. I liked the show enough to walk up to her and buy the self-recorded and self-released Illogically Chronic CD-R, which ended up not working, but she sent me the songs digitally and I've been keeping track of new recordings ever since. She recently released the Skin 7-inch on Father Daughter Records and contributed a c15 to NNA Tapes' Burlington, VT Box Set.

How was that show you played in Northampton, MA a year or two ago? How often do you get out of Vermont to play?

That show was great. I was visiting a friend who brought me to this great place to swim and then we went straight to the show. I hadn't brought a table or a mic stand so I used an ironing board as my table and wrapped my mic around a broom. I usually get out of Vermont for shows at least once a month. Even if I lose money on it sometimes, it's always nice to get out.

The new recordings, primarily "Skin" and the song "Eurydice" from the NNA Tapes Burlington, VT Box Set, sound a bit more polished than those from the Illogically Chronic CD-R. How has recording tooth ache. songs changed from that first CD-R to the recent 7-inch?

The funny thing about the Illogically Chronic CD-R is that over half of the songs on there were recorded all in one day in a basement, off the cuff, just writing them as I was recording them all in one take with a few overdubs. That's how tooth ache. started, I guess. So for the longest time the only material I had to show for myself was this weird disc of songs recorded through an internal microphone on a laptop into garageband. Then I started writing new stuff and finally started recording it, but taking a little more care in recording it. I recorded all of the songs on the box set myself, which I prefer to do because I like the privacy and control of doing things alone. The 7-inch was recorded by friends though, which was sick because they both added their own aspect to it. "Lazarus," the B side, was produced by my friend Matt Mayer. "Skin," the A side, was produced by my friend Joey Pizza Slice who recorded it and then played it through trash cans for some tinny reverb. I don't think I would want any of it to sound super polished. I've experimented with some new gear since then too. And my song structures have changed a lot.

Speaking of the Burlington Box Set, what are your thoughts on the current state of Burlington music? Where's the best place to catch weird shows? Who are some of your favorite Burlington musicians/artists right now?

Burlington is really weird because it's really small. There is this super tight-knit crew of friends and musicians who all play shows together even though we all play really different music. The thing we have in common is that we don't fit into the mainstream generic rock band/jam band scene and have all been cast away or completely ignored by the Burlington mainstream. There aren't a whole lot of cool venues around but the best places for shows right now are a bar called The Monkey House, a house called The Wedge, and a studio space called the Enchanted Forest. There are a few other places that host things occasionally but those three are the most consistent. I'm really into Toby Aronson, Lawrence Welks & Our Bear to Cross, Chubby Wonder (a.k.a. Psychic Vagina, Son of Salami, Nosebleed Island), and A Snake in the Garden. And basically all of the artists on the box set. Also: you should check out my other band, Susan. It's me and my friend, Ashley.

What can we expect from tooth ache. in the near future with regards to new music? Any plans for a full-length album?

I'm working on a full-length but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet in terms of releasing it. It's definitely in more of the direction of the songs that were on the box set. I feel like my stuff has evolved a lot since even the most recent releases so I'm excited to get it out there.

The first time I went to Burlington was sometime in the mid-90s on a family vacation, where I was introduced to the folklore surrounding both Lake Champlain's and Lake Memphremagog's aquatic monsters Champ and Memphre. As a young boy, I was terrified of swimming in such a body of water. What are your thoughts on these beasts? Do you know anyone who claims to have seen them?

I love Lake Champlain. I grew up around it and I was never afraid of any lake monsters. Although, there's a tiny lake up in Glover, VT called Shadow Lake and for some reason I was always afraid that there was a giant leach hanging out in the shadowy areas. There's a guy from my hometown who is apparently well-known for being a "Champ" chaser or whatever. He's been interviewed by the Discovery Channel or something. We share the same last name but we're not related. Some people are really nuts about that stuff. Someone in Burlington claimed to catch a video of Champ on their - Impose Magazine

The Chilean poet Vecente Huidobro once wrote: "Words cross the universe at half-mast / And often get eaten by birds." If this is true -- & I think we all can agree that it is -- then we would do well to imagine the teeth of said birds. To feel the ache of tern teeth, which migrate endlessly, from pole to pole, twice each year, grinding the light. & we might do well to imagine the words thus embodied, & their scenic digestion. The generous and curious dispersion. Bird shit is white! It is everywhere! When I listen to tooth. ache., I feel writhing inside me the guts of the birds that I myself have eaten. I am alone in my house, receiving myself; hurling myself outside of myself. I am crossing the universe at half-mast. I am guilty, guilty, GUILTY. For I have eaten the birds for the sake of the words, her words. - lucas farrell, editor of Slope

Ifyou have ever been to Vergennes, Vermont than you know this quaint town is little more than a traffic light between Burlington and New York City. Despite its small size and growing elderly population, there is a relatively diverse music scene, so it’s no mystery Alexandria Hall was able to blossom as an articulate and eclectic musician there. I suspect a bit more successful fan pull in Cambridge (her halfway location), but I hope she doesn’t disregard her roots.

Alexandria brings about an intimate experience through her minimalist approach and soft spoken lyrics. There are gentle melodies, subtle humor, and stints of pain, pleasure and confusion that bring about an honest portrayal of a young woman who is not afraid of her adolescence. Her persona and charisma are further defined through the one take single track feel and raw recording value of her songs, which emphasize her no bullshit style and compliment her musical ability. She is the soul musician throughout the entire Alexandria repertoire, and features instrumentation on piano, guitar, bass, harmonica, ukulele and percussions in some form or another.

Make no mistake, this is not the bogged down solo indie-pop that takes a mathematician and million dollars to render. Instead Alexandria relies on catchy riffs, poetic lyrics and a simple, this is what I got and this is what you get, writing approach.

There is apparently an album, or at least some sort of release, in the works but no sign of a performance anywhere and no obvious label backing that I can tell. However, there must be some sort of interest because this shit is a fucking gem.

- Pete Spartos - The Deli Magazine

Mountain Man (Bella Union) covers tooth ache.'s "Holy Father" at CMJ. - gorillavsbear.net

Here’s Tooth Ache, a Vermont band (with fans in Mountain Man, another Vermont band that covers a Tooth Ache song, “Holy Father.” You know it, “You must be some holy son and father son and only father… one, one, one, one.). The music of Tooth Ache is mystical and hums with curiosity. “Skin” is intoxicating–what with those hand claps, angelic voices and synth-y keyboard lines.

There’s something to be said about the music that is haunting solely because of its simplicity. That’s what’s up with “Skin.” The break down comes at both the obvious and perfect point in the song. And…. repeat.

This song will come out on the “Lazarus/Skin” 7? on Father/Daughter Records in late August or early September. Tooth Ache plays Silent Barn on June 29.

- microphone memory emotion

Father/Daughter Records just sent over some jams from a couple of upcoming 7" releases. The first is the delightful catchy archival pop brilliance of Family Trees, which drops at the end of this month. The second track is virtually the opposite, with the dark, chilling dancewave of tooth ache. That one won't be out til August, so I'm glad we've got something to hold us over until. - Get Off The Coast

Father Daughter Records is putting out Vermont-based tooth ache.'s 7-inch in August, including this pixelated cloud party called "Skin".
Self-described as "downer pop" but we're seeing a lot of silver lining.

- Impose Magazine

Really Really diggin' Vermont's Tooth Ache. Sexy stuff. It's like some 0o00o00 (did I spell number that right?) beats mixed with vocal tracks from an early Mary Pearson (High Places). Only you gotta times the equation by 10 because Alexandria's use of organ synth's and drum machines are in themselves something to write home about. And damn! does she ever know how to wrap her hooks firmly around each beat. 3 words: Easy As Pie.

Enjoy Suckas! - Speaker Snacks

Father/Daughter Records just sent over some jams from a couple of upcoming 7" releases. The first is the delightful catchy archival pop brilliance of Family Trees, which drops at the end of this month. The second track is virtually the opposite, with the dark, chilling dancewave of tooth ache. That one won't be out til August, so I'm glad we've got something to hold us over until. - Get Off The Coast

This Tooth Ache doesn't hurt. It's nice and you'll feel happy to have it. a/lex/an/dri/a's project, this is how she spells her name, is getting its first single release sometime in August on Father / Daughter Records but you can already enjoy Skin, a contagious track with lots of interesting beats and claps and an overheated organ and most important, her voice, somewhere close to Katie Stelmanies'. Meanwhile, you can also enjoy Mountain Man's cover of her song Holly Father if you happen to see them live, as they regularly perform it. According to her Bandcamp she also has another release ready for September, so keep on checking for other news.
This release is not ready for pre-order or even announced on the label's website yet but we'll have a look to reserve our copy as soon as it appears. It will come with Lazarus as the B side, a track is not ready for listening anywhere yet. - Sevennoises.blogspot.com

This Tooth Ache doesn't hurt. It's nice and you'll feel happy to have it. a/lex/an/dri/a's project, this is how she spells her name, is getting its first single release sometime in August on Father / Daughter Records but you can already enjoy Skin, a contagious track with lots of interesting beats and claps and an overheated organ and most important, her voice, somewhere close to Katie Stelmanies'. Meanwhile, you can also enjoy Mountain Man's cover of her song Holly Father if you happen to see them live, as they regularly perform it. According to her Bandcamp she also has another release ready for September, so keep on checking for other news.
This release is not ready for pre-order or even announced on the label's website yet but we'll have a look to reserve our copy as soon as it appears. It will come with Lazarus as the B side, a track is not ready for listening anywhere yet. - Sevennoises.blogspot.com

"...First up, this Friday night the Bean welcomes a cadre of interesting regional acts, including a relatively new local entry to the electro-indie-folk fold, tooth ache. Essentially a one-woman show consisting of songwriter Alexandria Hall, her music is a curious blend of lo-fi electronic tomfoolery and bass guitar. But the real draw here is Hall’s voice, which I would put somewhere between Jolie Holland, the girls from Tilly and the Wall and either Teegan or Sara — I can never tell those two apart. Picture Nose Bleed Island as the backing band and you’re picking up what I’m putting down..."
--Dan Bolles - Seven Days (Vt)

tangent from our good friend AKH, Tooth Ache has a little something for everyone... I think. On this evening at 8 o’clock Radio Bean is hosting Tooth Ache's hypnotic mono rhythms, catchy lyrics, and maybe even a pop up cover, or so you think. Get drunk and stop by; stop by and get drunk; either way the Bean’s got you covered with numb numb drinks and some moody noise sprinkled psycho punk gospel pop. Let me know how it goes please, I’m on holiday. Not in town either? Check out the Tooth Ache Myspace page for several more dates in 2009 up and down the eastern seaboard.

Peter Spartos - Deli Magazine (burlington)

Le titre "Skin" de tooth ache. nous colle à la peau depuis quelques semaines déjà sur le DS. Nous avons eu la chance de pouvoir écouter le titre "Lazarus" qui accompagnera le 7" Lazarus/Skin prévu le 17 août sur le label Father/Daughter Records et nous pouvons affirmer qu'Alexandria Hall est une artiste à suivre de près. Grincement de dents et bruxisme en perspective. La "downer pop" de tooth ache. est un geyser de lumières nous parvenant des ténèbres ! - Altered Zones

"...First up, this Friday night the Bean welcomes a cadre of interesting regional acts, including a relatively new local entry to the electro-indie-folk fold, tooth ache. Essentially a one-woman show consisting of songwriter Alexandria Hall, her music is a curious blend of lo-fi electronic tomfoolery and bass guitar. But the real draw here is Hall’s voice, which I would put somewhere between Jolie Holland, the girls from Tilly and the Wall and either Teegan or Sara — I can never tell those two apart. Picture Nose Bleed Island as the backing band and you’re picking up what I’m putting down..."
--Dan Bolles - Seven Days (Vt)