The D’Addario brothers come fresh faced and straight from a seventies time warp. Their Glamorous Rock-opera character sits smoothly with flared suits and corduroy. Looking past the novelty of style, the pair follow in their multi-instrumentalist Father, Ronnie D’Addario’s footsteps, making music that breaks from the boundaries, but most importantly, never takes itself too seriously.
With the abstract harmonies reigning supreme in most songs, the Twigs debut album, Do Hollywood, quietly earned its niche in 2016, releasing on the 4AD label. Laying out the bands “sound”, the record flips between styles, creating a quirky and nostalgic end product. Strong cornerstones here see Harry Nilsson and Wings come to mind.
Moving forward to 2018, the pair released their imperatively-titled second album Go To School, a conceptualised musical of high school American life. Instead of your average spotty teenager though, the brothers wrote about Shane, a chimpanzee, who’s without a home, unloved and bullied into lashing out and burning the school down, killing his oppressors in the act. Perhaps we do use too much palm oil…
Singles “Small Victories” and “The Fire” carry on from where Do Hollywood left off. The latter, and stronger of the two, “The Fire”, holds Springsteen’s gut to the proverbial flame in a characteristic larger than life way, finishing with a brilliantly thrashed out crescendo. The album as a hefty eighteen track whole, offers another strong release for the band, despite the absurd concept that holds throughout.
Since then, the boys, backed by Daryl Johns on bass, Tommaso Taddonio on keyboards and Andres Valbuena on drums, supported the one-and-only Arctic Monkeys during their sell-out UK Tour. Singer Alex Turner now dons the boys’ patent seventies attire, regularly sporting his own vintage pimp style on stage. I was fortunate to see The Lemon Twigs open at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena and was impressed by Michael D’Addario’s, stage presence. Appearing as a sort of punk Paul Simon with electric guitar in hand, his moves were a mix between Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger. Odd but brilliant. The fittingly eccentric music nonetheless left a lacklustre audience (of which the person sat behind me literally said “what is this shit”) with something to remember.
Though their image and style may be hard to “get” straight off the bat, The Lemon Twigs unusual approach to music is undoubtedly rewarding us with some outstanding tracks. In a period where every rock fan is longing for the Britpop days back, and nostalgia is craved in every corner of the music world, The Lemon Twigs are bringing back the 70s in a new and refreshing way.
The Rodeo Recommends…
…The pairs “Take Away Show” available on the La Blogothèque’s YouTube channel for an easy way into their music. The videos offer a stripped down and accessible rendition of their (and others, notably Mac DeMarco’s) music, shot and performed along the streets of Paris. If you’d rather see them without a screen, or have a strong distaste for Europeanism however, The Lemon Twigs begin their 2019 UK Tour in Manchester on the 23rd February. Get yourself down and enjoy , there’s nothing around today like them if we are honest.
Words by Nick Ikin
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