The Tortoise Boom

I went back to school after taking about five years off. My intent was to get the degree I was missing and go back home and get a full time job that had to with music or film. I also wanted to enroll and work at the campus radio station. I had grand ideas of shows I wanted to do. What I did not know was that there were about two dozen bands that somehow were uniquely popular to some people and I should listen to. One of these bands was Tortoise.

Tortoise was a I never heard of until I went back to school. By the time I started school they had three albums out. Why did I never hear about them in the musical papers or on the college radio stations that I religiously listened to? Maybe they did play them and I did not pick up on this wonderful sound. Either way I stumbled upon them when I met some of the radio station people who lived downstairs in my dorm. Both myself and the people from downstairs agreed that liked Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Miles Davis, Faith No More, and Aphex Twin plus many others.

One day though they invited me to their room for some musical talk. One of the guys was the music DJ at the college radio station the other was a music major. Seemed pretty fair that two sides of the musical spectrum were covered. Then they asked me about other bands I liked. They asked me about Orb, King Crimson, Television, Talking Heads and many others. I agreed with all of those. But then they asked me about bands I never heard of. These included Tortoise, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab For Cutie. They were surprised to hear that I have not heard of any of those at the time.



They narrowed their selection to Tortoise. They told me If I like Aphex Twin and Radiohead I should like them. I was deeply curious about this band. Three albums and I still have not heard of them. It did not add up like it was supposed to for me. Usually a band gets some kind of listen by me after the first one. So the music major made me a mix CD of Tortoise. It comprised of the first three albums. The albums I should have had in my collection. It was a great mix, so much in fact I had to find these albums that I missed.

I took this burned CD back upstairs and studied it. My roommate heard the first song and though it was something crazy. The first song was a song called "The Equator" which is off TNT. I was enjoying it because it included the Aphex Twin type electronica with real guitar and bass and drums. I was shocked why I did not like this sooner. I mean I think Aphex Twin is amazing. I reached the second song, again this was off TNT. This was the title track from the album. This time the guitar was more at the front of the song and what it made it more interesting was the fact that this was really catchy. There was no solo, but the riff was really well done. As I listened more and more it became clear that this was a band I should follow and listen to.



I listened to them a lot while I was at school that first semester and became hooked on all the stuff they were doing. Everything was quite fun but in a way it had some technical to it. I really liked how they expanded the landscape even further of what we were all used to. It was a welcome sound to my ears, but sadly I get home and talk about it, they all think I am crazy. So crazy that they think I invited some kind of stuff that was not in anyone's musical spectrum.

The sound of the album is very original with the Spanish guitar sound and the background of children playing. The parts I like are the way the guitar does not even have to do a solo, but its presence on the song makes it sound warm and not intimidating. Each album had a wonderful surprise that led to a never ending field of the music genre. I was hooked, and I wanted people to hear it.

When the next album came out after TNT called Standards. I quickly picked it up. The one who introduced me to it quickly wanted a copy. I heard the feedback of the guitar and just thought how new and fresh this was too. All of the sudden the drums kicked in. When we listened to it, we both looked at each other like wow!!!! I then saw the tour with him and we felt unique to all the music that was out there. It was fun and fresh and most of all ours. No one in my group of friends will never experience the sound that is Tortoise.