empirelivealbany.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve done this long enough that we can put out the music we feel like putting out,\u201d he said. \u201cActually, it\u2019s worked out better financially, too, than it ever did when we were on Interscope (Records, the company that released the band\u2019s music until 2001), with the label looking to recoup every nickel and dime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Charmer\u201d is an album that\u2019s nearly a decade in the making. After dropping \u201cThe Lower Side of Uptown\u201d in 2017, Toadies found themselves without a record label. Instead of seeking out another one for support, Reznicek said he and the bandmates \u201cdecided to save up a certain percentage of our income from touring and record an album ourselves.\u201d Their goal was to work with engineering legend Steve Albini, whose list of credits includes alt-rock legends Nirvana, Pixies, Breeders, Jesus Lizard and Fugazi, to name a handful. A Toadies\/Albini collaboration was something Reznicek noted had been a goal for 30 years.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Toadies got to work with Albini on what turned out to be one of his final projects before he passed away later that year, with the plan to record the album \u201cthen worry about a label or just self-release.\u201d For Reznicek, the sessions harkened back to the group\u2019s early days. \u201cThe Charmer\u201d was recorded analog to tape and live in-studio, \u201cno Pro Tools or digital anything, just a razor blade and scotch tape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was something we\u2019d gotten away from in the intervening 30 years,\u201d Reznicek said. \u201cRecording onto tape was kind of the most efficient method; we\u2019d play at the same time and keep the best takes of us gelling together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to being a batch of performances Reznicek and the band could be proud of, there\u2019s another aspect of \u201cThe Charmer\u201d that makes it particularly meaningful. In 1997, Toadies worked on a follow-up to \u201cRubberneck\u201d entitled \u201cFeeler.\u201d Interscope Records\u00a0\u2014 hoping for another \u201cPossum Kingdom\u201d\u00a0\u2014 rejected the album. This set them back years, and by the time the album \u201cHell Below\/Stars Above\u201d came out in 2000, Interscope abandoned promoting Toadies and prompted a five-year hiatus for the band from 2001 to 2006.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By betting on themselves with \u201cThe Charmer\u201d and funding their own recording sessions, Toadies were able to gain a newfound level of autonomy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s the first time, of all the albums we\u2019ve recorded, that we own our own masters,\u201d he said. \u201cOf our nine albums, it\u2019s the first one we own completely. We were lucky to be in a position where we could record and when it came time to working out a distribution deal, say, \u2018We paid for this, so we\u2019re going to retain control.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Charmer\u201d came out in May on Dallas-based Spaceflight Records, with the label stating, \u201cit\u2019s your record, we\u2019ll put it out.\u201d Since issuing it, the Toadies have been working the hell out of it on the road, performing 8 to 10 of its 13 songs live.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Sign up here<\/a><\/p>\nThis record pairs with tracks from \u201cRubberneck\u201d to comprise the bulk of the setlist. Reznicek has noticed that \u201cThe Charmer\u201d material has resonated particularly strongly with the younger demographic that comes to see the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The strong response to the new tunes and the longevity of \u201cPossum Kingdom\u201d\u00a0\u2014 which Reznicek says has allowed Toadies to \u201call be able to make a living as musicians and would never take for granted\u201d\u00a0\u2014 has made playing together an enjoyable experience for the band.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we play the new stuff, the crowd seems enthusiastic, especially the younger people. It\u2019s cool in and of itself that young people want to see us,\u201d Reznicek said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun and cool playing songs from throughout our whole catalog that we\u2019re excited about, and it feels like we\u2019re playing to our biggest crowds ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Musicians\u00a0Doni Blair, Vaden Todd Lewis, and Mark Reznicek of the Toadies perform in concert at Stubb\u2019s Bar-B-Q on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[141418,132,134,133,2777,94345,66,278],"class_list":["post-403652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-alco","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-entertainment","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}