Teeth & Tongue
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Teeth & Tongue

Northcote, Victoria, Australia | MAJOR

Northcote, Victoria, Australia | MAJOR
Band Pop Avant-garde

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"MTV Iggy U.S"

By Beverly Bryan
February 2, 2011

I want to watch the video for Teeth & Tongue’s “Sad Sun” over and over again. I just don’t know if it’s the hypnotically beautiful song, or the animated yetis.

The yetis are awesome, but there’s a seductive psychedelic tug to the Australian band’s new single that just makes you want to listen multiple times. The trio evokes some of Sonic Youth’s trippier moments on the bummed-out track, but it has a polished sheen to it that somehow underscores the melancholy.

It might not help those in the Northern Hemisphere to escape the winter blahs — it’s basically seasonal affective disorder set to music — but it might help you to embrace them by providing an anthem for the gloom.

And frontwoman Jess Cornelius seems like she could help you get through an icy patch. Her steady voice on “Sad Sun” is Grace-Slick cool but Neko-Case soulful. Yeah, it’s the song that keeps me coming back. I’ve decided. - MTV


"Time Off Sydney Review"

"..a damn fine album". "..the whole album is musically gorgeous, making it both enchanting and unsettling at the same time"- Time Off, Sydney - Street Press Australia


"Time Off Sydney Review"

"..a damn fine album". "..the whole album is musically gorgeous, making it both enchanting and unsettling at the same time"- Time Off, Sydney - Street Press Australia


""Four stars"- The Age Life & Syle"

"****" - Fairfax Media


"Tambourine- The Vine"

Teeth & Tongue
Tambourine
(Dot Dash/Remote Control)

You’ve gotta hand it to Jess Cornelius: when members of her band began dropping away, she simply picked up their instruments and played them herself. Teeth & Tongue’s second album sees Cornelius credited with not just vocals and guitar, but bass, keyboards, and drum machine. Yet it’s no solo project, as guitarist Marc Regueiro-McKelvie (of one-man act Popolice) contributes vital leads throughout. Other players appear too, and veteran producer Simon Grounds lends a clean finish that belies the interminable, piecemeal recording process. Out of all that comes a grand feat of songwriting soul and one of the best Australian albums of this year.

There’s a prevailing theme of romance gone to seed on Tambourine, and yet the album glides along so smoothly that it’s never bogged down by so much regret. The rich greys of Cornelius’s voice play beautifully against Regueiro-McKelvie’s ribbon-like leads and mirrors her own reflective lyrics. “They said I should write down all things on my mind / So I don’t worry,” she notes on the deceptively titled ‘Happiness’, as the music slinks and shivers around her words. ‘Rot on TheVine’ and ‘Sad Sun’ are likewise thematically bleak and yet musically gorgeous, the latter channelling the great ’90s band Helium. Another highlight, ‘Vaseline on the Lens’, benefits as much from the uncertain programmed beats as from Regueiro-McKelvie’s sinister guitar.

This album envelops you from the start. But if for some strange reason the opening ‘Walls’ doesn’t do the trick, try the next song. It’s the lead single ‘Unfamiliar Skirts’, about a man who loses himself in various young beauties while the narrator patiently waits for him. “Your epiphany, when it comes, is liable to hurt,” Cornelius cautions, sounding detached despite her character’s investment in the scenario. It’s a perfect slice of guitar-pop taking a turn for the dark.

The same could be said of Tambourine: it smoulders and lingers, twisting its casual beauty into something oh so much deeper.

Doug Wallen

-- - Fairfax Media


"Single Of The Week"

"...This new single (Sad Sun) is a revelation...trust me, it's really good- right up there with Love Of Diagrams' Forever as my favourite local single of the year so far."
- Inpress Magazine


"The Age (Melbourne) Magazine- Monobasic review"

"...Cornelius's songs are strange, intriguing beasts; "Stacey Come Over is one of a few that sound like good post-punk such as Public Image or Magazine... It's very good. "- Chris Johnston, The Age (Melbourne) Magazine.
- The Age


"MAG feature"

"Jess Cornelius' sassy solo debut (as Teeth & Tongue) is a soulful, lo-fi work of genuine intrigue." Dan Rule, Music Australia Guide




- Music Australia Guide


"Rolling Stone magazine"

"There are names often invoked for an artist in this line- Patti Smith, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey- and Cornelius manages to be a beguiling combination of all three." - Rolling Stone Magazine, March 2009




- Monobasic review


"The Age EG"

"...her brilliant debut album 'Monobasic' is a rough-cut gem..."
- CD review of Monobasic


"Yen Magazine"


"...Dark, foreboding ballads with a galloping rhythm section and chiming guitar. Unsettling, but beautiful." Yen Magazine - Album reviews


"Who Magazine"


* * * * "A raw, idiosyncratic debut..." Who Magazine
- * * * *


"Mess and Noise"


"...one of most damn listenable records released this year." - Mess & Noise Magazine

- Monobasic review


Discography

Tambourine (2011) LP, Dot Dash/Remote Control.
Single 'Unfamiliar Skirts' added to rotation on Triple J.
'Single of the week' Inpress Magazine
Feature Album on RRRfm
Album of the week RTR fm and Edge Radio.

Monobasic (2008) LP, Crystal Chain/Inertia. Single 'Lightness' added to rotation on Triple J and Fbi (NSW) feature airplay on RRR (Vic.) Album of the Week on 3D radio (SA) and 4ZZZ (QLD).

Sad Sun (2009) Single, Crystal Chain/Inertia. Digital release only. Added to rotation on Fbi, regular airplay on RRR and Triple J, feature song as part of Triple J's 'Next Crop' selection. Single of the Week -Inpress

Photos

Bio

Teeth & Tongue is the music project of New Zealand born, Melbourne based musician Jess Cornelius. With a combination of hypnotic 505 drum-machine beats and slow, bent-out-of-shape guitar lines, the songs weave themselves throughout heartbreak and simmering discontent.

Teeth & Tongue's second album, Tambourine, came out in April 2011 though Dot Dash/Remote Control, earning RRR Album of the Week and rave reviews across Australia. The Age gave it four stars, and The Vine called it "One of the best Australian releases this year". The first single, 'Unfamiliar Skirts' earned an EG Awards nomination (Song of the Year) and Tambourine was longlisted for the Australian Music Prize 2012.

The album release was followed up with a massive North American tour in 2012, playing a slew of dates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Texas, New York and Toronto. Showcases at both SXSW and CMW were well received, as were Jess' three consecutive New York shows (and three consecutive nights in her awesome floral onesy!) In the Big Apple she caught the ears of East Village Radio (performing a live-to-air set on The Smith’s Andy Rourke’s radio show) and MTV’s Vh1, impressing with her lo-fi solo sets at Glasslands, Pianos & Rockwood Music Hall.

Her debut record Monobasic received critical acclaim from Australian media, including rotation airplay on triple j and FBi, ‘album of the week’ on Radio Adelaide, and stellar reviews in Rolling Stone Magazine, jmag, Who Weekly and Yen Magazine.

Teeth and Tongue has gone on to perform at the 2009 Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia; the 2010 Laneway Festival in Melbourne, Australia; and has shared the stage with the likes of J Mascis (USA), EMA (USA), The Dodos (USA), Juana Molina (Argentina), Grant Hart of Husker Du (USA), The Mountain Goats (USA), THE Duke Spirit, (UK), Bachelorette (NZ) and The Drones.

2012 is jam-packed: Teeth & Tongue is currently recording a new album and is about to embark on an Australian-wide tour as a performing guest on SBS Television’s music show Rockwiz.

Highlights:
- North American tour in 2012 - shows in LA, SF, NYC, Austin, Toronto; at SXSW & CMW

- Australian tour supports in 2012: J Mascis, Sons & Daughters, EMA, Wagons

- Performed at the 2010 Laneway Festival in Melbourne, Australia alongside Florence & the Machine, Mumford & Sons, The Dirty Three, Daniel Johnston, N.A.S.A, The XX, The Black Lips.

- Supported The Dodos (USA), Juana Molina (Argentina), Grant Hart of Husker Du (USA), The Mountain Goats (USA), THE Duke Spirit, (UK), Bachelorette (NZ) and The Drones.

- Radio airplay across Australian radio stations triple j, RRR FM (Melbourne), FBI FM (Sydney), 2SER FM (Sydney), RTR FM (Perth) and Radio Adelaide.

- Performed at the 2009 Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia alongside Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Moby, Wolfmother, Grizzly Bear, Emilana Torrini, Charlift, White Rabbits, King Khan and the Shrines, Editors, and Andrew Bird.

What the press have to say about Teeth and Tongue:

"Hypnotically beautiful...there’s a seductive psychedelic tug to the Australian band’s new single that just makes you want to listen multiple times." – MTV Iggy

“A real knack for setting the scene in her songwriting, and has a novelist’s gift... phrases that read like poetry and take on a heartbreaking quality.” - Vh1

"Her single “Unfamiliar Skirts,” is so good, it’s hard to believe she wrote, arranged, and recorded the track all in one night." - Nylon

"...one of most damn listenable records released this year." ­ Mess and Noise

"There are names often invoked for an artist in this line ­ Patti Smith, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey­ and Cornelius manages to be a beguiling combination of all three." - Rolling Stone Magazine

"...Cornelius's songs are strange, intriguing beasts; "Stacey Come Over is one of a few that sound like good post­punk such as Public Image or Magazine... It's very good. " - Chris Johnston, The Age (Melbourne) Magazine.

"Jess Cornelius' sassy solo debut (as Teeth & Tongue) is a soulful, lo­fi work of genuine intrigue." - Dan Rule, Music Australia Guide

"Beautifully raw and affecting, Jess Cornelius's voice makes you sit up and take notice..." –mX Magazine

"...Completely captivating" - Three Thousand

"Low­fi, raw and from the heart ... this solo debut is a testament that some things do happen for the better." ­ - Jmag

* * * * "A raw, idiosyncratic debut..." - Who Magazine

"...Dark, foreboding ballads with a galloping rhythm section and chiming guitar. Unsettling, but beautiful." ­ - Yen Magazine