Teddy Blanks
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Teddy Blanks

New York City, New York, United States

New York City, New York, United States
Band Pop EDM

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Ex-Gasket Teddy Blanks returns with solo project and Frank Black cover"

The Gaskets were one of the more promising electro bands bubbling up from the underground a few years ago, and the duo’s song “Hold Steady Hot Weather” got the indie kids dancing but good.

Alas, the Gaskets didn’t make it — the group split amicably about a year ago. Fortunately, singer Teddy Blanks is back on his own with a solo EP, “Complications,” that’s due in May.

In the meantime, he’s made a pair of downloads available now: “Somewhat Hasty,” a minimalist original laced with electric piano and synth bass; and a sweet electronic cover of Frank Black’s “Headache.” - Listen Dammit (Blog run by Eric Danton, music critic for the Hartford Courant)


"Another Report: Northside Festival 2009"

Teddy Blanks
June 14th: Public Assembly

By Rose Martelli

I caught Teddy Blanks at Public Assembly on Sunday night by accident (I got the time wrong on another act), and ironically, I wasn’t quite sure if what I was watching was, in and of itself, an intentional piece of performance-art pop or just some wackily self-confident guy with a not-bad set of pipes who decided to jump on stage and kill time before the real musical act showed up.

So who or what exactly is Teddy Blanks? He’s a singer-songwriter (and former frontman of a band called The Gaskets) who performs, to quote another critic, “lo-fi laptop electro.” There are no instruments or other people performing them onstage with him; the synthpop sound seems to emerge out of nowhere, accompanied by Blanks’ quite capable vocals and, standing on one corner of the stage, a simple TV screen on which various complementary images shuffle past. (Most memorably Sunday night, the movie Eyes Wide Shut was shown in perpetual fast-forward as Blanks sang.) He writes original songs and does covers. On the former, he’s got an EP full of medical issues called Complications; he describes it on his website as “six upbeat pop songs about strange diseases and medical trauma.” This includes “The Itch”, a great pop song. As for covers, in a similarly health-concerned vein, he does “Girlfriend in a Coma”. And he’s definitely an act worth seeking out. - Consequence of Sound (Music Blog)


"Singing The Itch"

SINGING THE ITCH
by Thessaly La Force

This June, in “The Itch,” Atul Gawande wrote about a woman called M. who couldn’t stop scratching an itch on her head, so much so that, at some point, she scratched all the way to her brain. It was a gruesome read for some of us—little, imaginary itches began to sprout, and it was impossible not to scratch. But for the singer-songwriter Teddy Blanks, it was an inspiration. Blanks remembers reading the article one day on the train and was, as he puts it, “squirming in my seat.” Later that night, as he tried to write, he saw The New Yorker on his bedside table. Unable to get Gawande’s words out of his head, he composed his own “Itch,” a little ditty about, well, itching. As Blanks explains:

"If I sang 'She’s Got the Itch' in the right way, it sounded less like a chronic condition and more like an antiquated fifties dance move. I wanted a pace and rhythm that felt itchy in some way. All of the sounds and riffs, even down to the beat, are jumpy and repetitive. I wanted you to be able to scratch an itch in time to the song, if for some reason you might have one while listening." - The New Yorker


Discography

May 2009 : "Somewhat Hasty" Single
July 2009 : "Complications" EP

Photos

Bio

For seven years, Teddy Blanks was the lead singer of the popular Richmond, Virginia-based synth-pop duo the Gaskets, an act known for its frantic live performances and crossover appeal. While in the Gaskets, Blanks shared bills with a shockingly diverse group of artists, including Girl Talk, Camper Van Beethoven, R&B singer Monica, Daniel Johnston, Violent Femmes, Mudhoney, and Weird Al.

After the Gaskets called it quits, Blanks began working on a new group of songs inspired by the work of medical essayist and New Yorker staff writer Atul Gawande. What resulted was a six-song EP about strange diseases and medical trauma, named (with permission from the author) after Gawande's book, "Complications," and released on the iTunes store in July 2009.

Blanks's stage show is a minimalist mash-up of live performance and video art. The set-up: one vocal mic and a 28-inch television sitting atop a barstool. The TV is a member of the band, as it blasts Blanks's backing tracks and shuffles through strange and hypnotizing video, edited to the music from various found footage. (One particularly memorable moment: during the single "Somewhat Hasty," the entirety of Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" is played in fast-forward, in perfect synch with the song.) Meanwhile, Blanks struts and prances around the stage, cajoling the audience to sing along and join him in his spastic, infectious dancing.