Heroes of Toolik - Aquarium School 7" 2014

I'm not sure I am really qualified to review the Heroes of Toolik, and I can honestly say that I'm not sure they have anything to offer to the readers of UBRS, however the band was kind enough to submit  physical copies of their recordings, therefore I am going to do my best to describe their sound.

The first thing I noticed about the bands new 7" Aquarium School is that is was produced by Wharton Tiers whose name was familiar to me as he has worked with a long list of excellent bands over the years including Quicksand, Sonic Youth,Helmet,White Zombie, Dinosaur JR and numerous others. Wharton was also a member of the early New York no wave scene as a member of Glorious Strangers.  Heroes of Toolik also consists of members who have serious musical pedigrees...bassist Ernie Brooks was a member of  The Modern Lovers, and other members have played with Lounge Lizards, Glenn Branca and more.

Anyway, on to the music. The 7" opens with Aquarium School which is a nice mellow song with smooth sung/spoke vocals laced  with trombone, accordion and pretty female backing vocals. The flip side of this 7" Dances With Elsa moves along at a bit of a more forceful pace with nice boy/girl vocals sung mostly simultaneously.  My overall impression is that Heroes of Toolik is the type of band you might stumble upon playing at a local art gallery or chill lounge or at a  local watering hole in NY/NJ on a week night surrounded by people eating, drinking, chatting and just having a nice night out with friends , think Maxwells in Hoboken when they used to have the Jazz band play in the restaurant area.

So in closing, while I'm still not sure UBRS is a good fit for this style of music, I think Heroes of Toolik are a good band who should appeal to a wide range of listeners. Check out the link below for more detail, show dates etc...Dave G.

Heroes of Toolik