I Burn: Live Toadies
One of my favorite bands is the
title="The Toadies Site">Toadies. I’ve mentioned them
title="Burden Brothers entry">before but I don’t think I can express how
much I like them. Seeing them many times in Texas while I was in college and
the fact that they just have really great music helped to cement my love of
this wonderful band. Strong lyrics (albeit very dark at times) and catchy
hooks make listening to the music over and over very easy to do. The band was
also quite approachable (as opposed to other Texas bands of the era like
Tripping Daisy, bastards. However many bands were approachable and are some of
my favorites. Hagfish, Rev. Horton Heat, Beefmasters. They all love and
respect their fans).
So, There are four releases from the Toadies: Pleather EP (1993),
Rubberneck (1995), Hell Below/Stars Above (2001), and Best
of Toadies: Live From Paradise (2002). Notice the rather large gap
between Rubberneck and HB/SA. That’s a long time to wait for a
sophomore effort and unfortunately many people gave up on the Toadies in those
intervening years. They were definitely hot with a platinum album and
appearances on many soundtracks (Cable Guy, Escape from L.A., i
Basquiat, Crow: City of Angles, and X-Games Volume 1). Sometimes
I wish there was a collection of those B-sides, but I guess if I want them I’m
just going to have to hunt for them (ahhhh,
Music will be the death of me :).
I just recently picked up the Live From Paradise album and I must say,
it’s one of the best live albums I have now (It will easily rest at the top of
my live list along with the
Dropkick Murphys Live on St. Patrick’s Day). For anyone that liked
Rubberneck and has listened to it once in the last two years you should
so get this album. Also, if you like Todd Lewis’ vocals and singing you might
want to check out the
Burden Brothers where he sings and writes some of the songs. It’s a bit
different though just so you’re warned.
And now I must start my day and wonder why some of the best albums I have are
all the final release from excellent bands with short careers.
