Toys and Tiny Instruments, a shambling goodtime rock band from Brooklyn, NY, are exactly as they sound. They play their sets with toys and tiny instruments. There is a whole mess of them – like six or eight humans are onstage when the Toys play – but they pull it off since their instruments are so tiny. No, I’m kidding. That’s not why they pull it off. They actually fucking rock, and their songs are stylish pop gems that speak for themselves.
Some Toy Band members rocking out forever
The MP3 I have posted is a total pop gem called “Lottery Ticket,” off their 2010 self-titled EP (which you should get your mitts on immediately). From the beginning, the song is almost unbearably gleeful, and although that’s generally not my bag (being pretty goth), I can’t stop listening to it. Colin Summers sings, joined by Karen Adelman on the chorus, which is really the wacky epicenter of the song. To me, the chorus invokes the kind of psychotic optimism that comes with getting drunk in the hours before noon: the entire day is ahead of you and you (and your BFF Jim Beam) are gonna! Take! It! On! Then after that, my favorite thing ever happens: a musical break with a shouty singalong. Yeah, you can tell they’re toys, and yeah, it’s a bit ridiculous, but the integrity of the song’s composition gives it enough grown-upness for maximum listenability. I actually think it’s a bit surreal, like Svankmajer’s Alice, but without all the dead animals. These are real musicians. They’re just acting real weird.
Toys & Tiny Instruments — “Lottery Ticket”
Visit the Toys & Tiny Instruments MySpace (and also that of My Friend Other, the band consisting of two core Toys Colin Summers and Alec Betterley, around whose songs the project takes place). And if you’re in NYC, they’re playing on January 8th at noted Bushwick venue Goodbye Blue Monday. Oh, yeah, and you should probably either trade money for it or just try to sweet-talk some of the members into giving you the five-song EP because it’s really really good.
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