The Tumbledryer Babies

What can I say about this debut EP by the tumbledryer babies except that it's got one of the catchiest and infectious tracks of 2010 on it - Marty Feldman's Eyes. This five track EP captures the minimalist and creative aspects of both Andrew Moore and Daryl Worthington and is produced by The Butthole Surfers amazing guitar and effects whiz Paul Leary. This short, but powerful effective EP reminds me of early experimental bands such as The Flying Lizards and The Normal and they have a new online album which should be available as we speak. Check out and enjoy this creative EP and dig it, ya hear? - Sparkplug magazine

Returning back to the UK has been everything I expected, for good and bad. Cold winds, rain, baked beans on toast and football violence. They just don’t do those kind of things as well in continental Europe.

Proper Indie is something else that’s done better here. Wait – that’s not musical xenophobia – there’s loads of great bands abroad, it’s just that Britain seems to lead when it comes to that brand of songs recorded in bedrooms, by bands with unusual names, made up of pasty young men.

Let’s shoehorn Today’s New Band into that category, too. In all honesty, I’m not sure if The Tumbledryer Babies are actually pasty white youths, but it’s a reasonable gamble to assume so. Their songs are pitch-perfect Bedroom Indie – lo-fi and lo-budget; hi-invention and hi-fun. A song that snipes at the unfairly popular trendies: Predictable Teens. A song that celebrates the status of the uncool: Now The Geeks Have A Union.

Tell Me What To Do swivels an ironic eye to the past, nicking an old rock ‘n’ roll bassline, some ‘shoop-shoop’ backing vocals, and a twist on a traditional line – “He hit me and it didn’t really feel like a kiss”. But it’s no dumb pastiche – the song is either a wry glance at bands who slavishly follow a defined path to stardom, or a cute love song – I’m not sure which. I hope it’s the former, but would happily settle for the latter.

Evan Dando’s The Outdoor Type nicely apes and reverses the Lemonheads’ song – “I can’t go away with you on a rock-climbing weekend/What if something’s on TV that’s never on again?” The desire for a lazy, stay-at-home-and-play-records-and-videogames life is shared by plenty. The Tumbledryer Babies have a market to meet their songs, and they deserve to be heard outside of darkened bedrooms across the land. They make simple, natty songs about their simple, natty lives. - anewbandaday.com

Looking at this CD, I'm reminded of the kind of band who get together in sixth-form, get a solid four-K review in Kerrang, and split up a week later when the bassist's 15-year-old girlfriend gets pregnant. In case you care, it's because of their name; that silly picture of a cow on the cover; and the fact one of their songs is called 'WWF'. Of course, I'm dead wrong and The Tumbledryer Babies is some bedroom-bound lunatic from Southend.

First track 'Tell Me What to Do' has the first "shoop-shoop" backing vocals I've heard in ages and only now do I realise how much I've missed them. Also it references The Ramones song 'Rock'n'Roll Radio' and is totally pathetic in the most knowing, best way (actually it's just occurred to me that the whole song is about Phil Spector: creepy). The lyrics to 'WWF' are really hilarious: 'My love-life/ is like the WWF... Very little contact or flesh/ or broad necks or oiled biceps/ But alot of deceit'. Tell me that's not some kind of crazy genius right there.

'Beautiful Mental Patient' is a remake of 'Angel Baby' by Rosie and the Originals with a lot less content and more tongue-in-cheek devotion. It's kind of a laugh but, at just over a minute long, also kind of a lazy stopgap. The same could be said of 'Marty Feldman Eyes': great title, and a promising start to the song, but it degenerates into zany electronic squiggles rather than going anywhere proper. At 30 seconds long, 'If You See Her Give Her Hell' is, again, fairly smart but totally undeveloped and it's hard to see why it was included at all.

So unlike most bedroom musicians, this guy actually seems to be good at writing pop songs but, like most bedroom musicians, he probably needs to cut down on the weed and develop some kind of work ethic. - Soundblab

It's Hefner meets Squeeze on opening track Tell Me What To Do on this five-track EP from this Southend duo, it has a handclap infused shoop-shoop rhythm and a kazoo driven comedown, and is a minimalistic quirky treat that doesn't prepare you for the scuzzy maudlin-pop of WWF, with its grumpy Depeche Mode guitar lines and synthesised drum-beats as Andrew Moore pines; 'My love life was like WWF, tricky moments and awkward approaches to sex.'

Beautiful Mental Patient feels like a The Jam song played at half speed, woozily sedated and enlivened by Emma Moore on theremin duties. It reminds of the early, lo-fi works of Aidan Smith as does the piano-led Marty Feldman Eyes, a sweet love song about being boss-eyed, which has Voluntary Butler Scheme-esque backing vocals and a buzzy stylophone melody from Paul Leary; it gets a little too repetitive as Moore sings the line 'Instead of having those Marty Feldman eyes' over and over. It vanishes into a peculiar quagmire of squelchy and unsettling noises, like a radio mis-tuned and flickering between stations.

'If she were a guy I'd shove glass in her eye,' sings Moore on the 30 second If You See Her, Give Her Hell which is an equally maudlin and silly bitter grumble, akin to a throwaway Misty's Big Adventure track, with similar (pleasingly) playschool production values.

This is a brief if eccentrically entertaining little record, that has a certain ramshackle charm if not enough meat on the bones. The Tumbledryer Babies have a knack for oddball pop, but the ideas here seem a little too flippant to really linger beyond a couple of listens and wry smirks. - God Is In The TV zine

It seems the spirit of DIY is well and truly alive still, at least in the wilds of Essex, UK. A region previously most notable for dog racing and some of the worst seaside resorts England has to offer, it’s becoming something of a hub for lo-fi eccentric pop, as exemplified by the thoroughly wonderful Tumbledryer Babies. Taking equal inspiration from their generic forebear Darren Hayman and the impressionistic pop of Phil Spector, this is a peculiarly English mix, and one that we can all experience for free. The band’s (surprisingly large) back-catalogue is available for free download from their Bandcamp page (http://thetumbledryerbabies.bandcamp.com/).

Made up of hubby-and-wife Andrew and Emma Louise Moore alongside bassist (and occasional thingy-hitter) Daryl Worthington, they’ve managed to court the interest of ex-Butthole Surfers Kramer and Paul Leary, who have mixed and produced 7-inches by the band. They’re travelling to SXSW in March so that sunny Austin can have a taste of dank, dreary Southend-on-Sea, so make sure you try to catch them if you’re going. They’ve also got a new record out, again available for free download. - popmatters.com

The heartbreak of literate, Thames Estuary-dwelling folk has always been a popular draw in the alternative world (see Darren Hayman for further details), but few artists manage to dash it off quite so innocently, or by making it sound like ‘Grease’ could have happened in Southend.
Nor do others often court the affections of the American underground in the process, but The Tumbledryer Babies have somehow managed to get Kramer of The Butthole Surfers to lend some serious echo to the final mix, and it’s all the better for it.
The Ivor Cutler-esque lyrics even speak of banging one’s needy head against a wall of sound, the cheek of the reference ably balanced by the innate correctness of the song itself. Unabashedly low-key, brilliantly realised and strangely moving all at once. - Artrocker magazine