Akron, Ohio band Trouble Books are back for a very limited edition tour of Europe and hurray for that because autumn has leaped out of the garden shed and cosying up on the couch is the order of the evening. Or cosying up at Schokoladen for that matter.
Keith Freund and Linda Lejsovka along with Mike Tolan make ambient, experimental guitar music where dreamy vocals float in and out, warm keyboards fill the background and various beeps and drones wander but all with restrained purpose. They’ve got a popmusic heart this band and know when to let it beat, as on “Past the new parking deck” from new album Gathered Tones which shows Trouble Books at their playful best with guitar lines Yo La Tengo would be proud of and hilarious lyrics to boot “you should pull a fire alarm or call in a bomb threat and meet me behind the loading dock for a quick kiss and a sandwich”. Genius. Thereafter the song dissolves blissfully over a minute and a half…
Last time they were here their manager failed to show up for the show. Apparently he’d met a girl and was too busy ahem, driving around. Huh? you say. Well, he had some important stuff in his car the band told us, most notably the merchandise and some very important equipment the lack of which meant they had to play most of the gig on their knees stooped over their pedals.
As you can see from the chosen photo this didn’t really put them out too much, in fact I’d say they might even have been taking the piss. Although maybe he’s also the third member of the band cos there was only two of them playing that day, Linda and one of the dudes, her husband.
Who knows, either way this charming band will have my undivided attention on this night. I just hope they have the green vinyl pressing of the new album with them. Delicious.
