If time travel was as easy as popping in a CD, consider 25% Toby's Live at the BPL, the key to starting up the psychedelic hippie bus.
The listener will end up in a place populated by weird guys tripping on mushrooms and trying to revive the '70s by shouting lyrics into the ears of the deaf.
25% Toby's lyrics are funny enough, but the band's sound is right up there with the redundancy of old Brady Bunch songs. The group tries to breathe life back into the dead art of funk and punk mixed with acid. This might have worked decades ago, but to the refined, the guitar feedback in almost every song simply sounds annoying.
The band is from Denton, Texas. Frontman Toby Halbrooks lends a magical touch of death metal to the songs. Halbrooks emerged from the group Polyphonic Spree along with Mike Melendi who plays guitar. Taylor Young sprouted from The Spree and plays percussion, while Jeremy Eggert completes the quartet on bass.
The songs are short and pretty much to the point. Some tracks may be only 22 seconds, but manage to promise the same massive headache.
The entire CD is thankfully under half an hour and tainted with the group's odd sense of humor.
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Even the cover of Live at the BPL will take you back in time. It's like staring at Jack Black in a polyester suit swinging around, tripping on some select hallucinogen.
Live at the BPL features a secret song at the end to give consumers that last irritating bang for their buck. The song is directed at Metallica for being some sort of bad influence on Halbrook's younger brother. It's the band's last attempt to be funny, but instead it only does a successful job at filling in the dead air.
The band, however, is known for its wild shows. Members of 25% Toby smash guitars, jump off of speakers and, of course, crowd surf. Members encourage fans to bring an item they would like to destroy to the show, anything from phones to vacuum cleaners.
Any person willing to voluntarily listen to 25% Toby is bound to destroy something, so perhaps that creates a happy medium for the group. If forcing listeners into destructive submission is the point of the band, then 25% Toby has done its part for society.
Live at the BPL
25% Toby
Indiego
Grade: D
