Music
Press
“Sink Me” is the second album from The Green Fuse, a Chicago duo consisting of singer-songwriter Chris Toft and multi-instrumentalist-producer Liam Davis. Assisted by a handful of musicians from around the city, the two man band has put together a collection of 12 songs that makes a positive impression right off the bat – especially through the enormous depth of the songs, in which a number of different influences are blended together with quasi casualness. Toft and Davis have clearly drawn their influences from the genre of singer-songwriter music as written by greats such as Dylan, Zevon or Costello. Pop, punk, (roots) rock, country, bluegrass, folk and blues are also no strangers to them. The album is continually moving in all directions. “Backwards Into You”, sung with the unsurpassable Kelly Hogan, is a piece that’s in every respect Jayhawks style alt. country, “Manchester ‘66” has something akin to the music of Ol’ Bawb as well as punk and blues. “Can O’ Peaches” and “Morning At The Magnolia” display beautiful subdued roots rock, and “Careless Love” is a true piano ballad. “Stretchin’ (The Natives Are Restless)” is played with a subtle bluegrass motif. “Leave Me A Dress” is nervous rock somewhere between the Stones and the Replacements. “Montgomery” and “Meadowlark” are two exceptional pieces of dramatic pop and “The Gingerman” injects roots rock with a shot of radio-friendly punk noise in the same vein as The Clash.
A spicy, varied, but above all approachable CD, if you ask us.
- ctrlaltcountry
Discography
The Green Fuse - "Sink Me" (2006); The Green Fuse - self titled (1998)
Photos
Bio
Where's the grandeur and imagination in songwriting today? Right here. Songs of experience, attitude, regret, bittersweet knowledge. With a tight group of pros (who gig regularly as the power-pop outfit Frisbie) backing dynamic frontman/songwriter Chris Toft, The Green Fuse offers a place to hear and see these dramatic stories come to life.
Toft shared the stage and classroom in high school with Liz Phair, indie film star Lili Taylor, Steppenwolf's Jim True and Rainn Wilson of NBC's hit "The Office". After getting acting and writing degrees, he turned to songwriting and, with producer/musician Liam Davis, put out the first, eponymous Green Fuse record in 1998. He paused to start a family and career and write a batch of new songs, now he's teamed again with Davis and his Frisbie bandmates to recapture the spark and break fresh ground. "Sink Me" -- a snarled survey course of classic American styles united by an outsider mentality, great performances and incisive lyrics -- offers listeners songs ranging from Dylan's take on his acoustic-loyalist critics, to a backhanded tribute to the death of Elvis, an upbeat-but-bittersweet duet with the inimitable Kelly Hogan, a polemic on a backward southern city, and a drunken romp through Dublin and London.
Links
