Tooth and I

Honest I's - pronounced like eyes - are an interesting trio. They say they're influenced by Tom Waits ... I would have said Pleasure Forever and Michael Gira's Angels of Light too, thanks to the singer's mannered delivery (though his range is tad higher than Gira's). The combination of tremeloes and delayed guitar with piano and some snappy drumming really works.


Honest I's, The Rainbow, August 11, 2008

As for The Harold Wartooth, they like their riffs fuzzy and their guitars moderately pointy. I presume they get their name from the legendary Scandinavian warrior king Haraldr Hilditoenn. Musically they come from the land of the ice and snow. They're young chaps with a fondness for 1970s rock in the vein of Deep Purple and more modern stuff like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Queens of the Stone Age. A solid combo with a good singer, but still working on establishing a distinctive ID.


The Harold Wartooth, The Rainbow, August 11, 2008

Ottawa's Keyotone were also on the bill, but I missed them. They have a show coming up August 25 at Zaphod Beeblebrox.