Not like the other bands

December 31, 2012 12:24 PM

Teeth of the Sea are a quartet of clean-cut young men from North London. They work in shops. Together, they make a near indescribable noise, a bit like Sketches of Spain-era Miles Davis recordings reimagined by slightly scary, 30-something metalheads with a thing for Euro-sleaze cinema, cheap lager, philosophy and noise rock. They are, genuinely, not like other bands.

Additional links:

Teeth of the Sea's second album, Your Mercury (2010) [Spotify]
The Hypnoticon EP (2010) [Spotify]
TOTS first album, Orphaned by the Ocean (2009) [Spotify]
Twitter

Live footage:

Swear Blind the Alsatian's Melting, (Lexington, London, 2010).
Red Soil (Lexington, London, December 2011)
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. (Lexington, London, December 2011)
You're Mercury, (Lexington, London, December 2011)
The Island Is (ripped from the Hypnoticon EP)

Bonus footage:

Sometime Rocket Recordings label-mates psych-/krautrock/Afrobeat helpmeets:

The pretty amazing Swedes Goat (live at the Lexington, October 2012)
Manchester-natives Gnod, Tron (live, April 2012).
More Gnod, live in Brussels earlier this year.

Unfortunately, I can't find any footage of the TOTS DJ support slot for Slavoj Žižek in London earlier this year.

posted by Sonny Jim (9 comments total)

Teeth of the Sea is the French translated title of Jaws. La Dents de la Mer. Which led to a problem with the sequel title, when spoken, la dents de la mer deaux.
posted by Brainy at 1:16 PM on December 31, 2012 [7 favorites]

This is the sort of stuff that if I only heard it on an album and didn't see actual humans making it I would have passed it over very quickly, but the videos really bring it to life.

Totally not the same genre, but they do something with the way their music is structured that reminds me of Stereolab - sort of a slowly growing minimalism that builds this amazing tension and THAT is the essence of the music.
Digging it, thanks for sharing.
posted by aloiv2 at 1:49 PM on December 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

Thanks very much for this, it's great!

To my ears it sounds like some sort of wonderful mix of Holy Fuck, Fuck Buttons and Stereolab.
posted by mnfn at 3:41 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

So what you're saying is, these guys need to get super-famous so that someone can start a tribute band and call it "Teeth of the Shit"...
posted by and so but then, we at 4:07 PM on December 31, 2012

This is incredible, thanks.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:10 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

There are a few bands around Minneapolis that have a strikingly similar feel to this. To whit, The Yoleus, Hardcore Crayons, and Falcon Arrow. And I just started listening to Holy Fuck, too. So, this is pretty amazing.
posted by cthuljew at 11:34 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

One suspects that watching these people do that thing in a very loud, sweaty, gleeful venue would be a very fine and life-affirming experience. If only I lived in North London and smoked weed... hey, hang on a minute...
posted by Devonian at 9:25 AM on January 1, 2013 [3 favorites]

Really, really enjoyed this. Thanks for posting!
posted by fiercecupcake at 10:38 AM on January 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

So what you're saying is, these guys need to get super-famous so that someone can start a tribute band and call it "Teeth of the Shit"...

There was apparently once a Lucksmiths parody band named The Fucksticks.
posted by acb at 5:43 AM on January 3, 2013