Our EP is on sale at reckless all 3 locations in Chicago. Also Permanent Records. And D&Z house of books if you're Polish. In Brooklyn, at Soundfix records in Williamsburg. In London, at Rough Trade Records and (forgot, the one near the Oxford Circus stop) In Japan, at File-Under records
TATEMATSU BLD.402 3-8-14 OSU NAKA-KU
NAGOYA AICHI Off you go to buy it now! :) We've sold 20% of them in 3 weeks. Yay! And with no proper distributor, just me aleks... Each store outside of Chicago has a limited number, so pick it up soon. We'll afford to record once we sell this batch. If you live out of town write to aleksandthedrummer@gmail.com. If you work at a record store and like us and want to help, PLEASE let us know.
Aleks Andra Tomaszewska (toh-ma-SHEV-ska)
singerka
keyboarderka
crazed beats born of diseased hearts, viscous opalescence, victorious and sad dance music, nintendo adrenaline, tearful resolutions, middle-eastern candy, operatic desperation for the useless, obsessive nature of complex paper cut-outs, and meandering melodies among ancient trees. thank you for visiting and enjoy us please.
please join our mailing list at aleksandthedrummer@gmail.com. Include your city
..Our EP is out. And yes, David Sitek produced the sound. WOW. And most don't know but you now know. Our release show was sweaty fun. Chicago : Reckless Records (all locations) and also Permanent records. Brooklyn : at Soundfix. Seattle : (west) Easy Treat Records. London : at Rough Trade records and Sister RAy. In Japan, at File-Under Records here: TATEMATSU BLD.402 3-8-14 OSU NAKA-KU
NAGOYA AICHI If you'd like to be notified of shows in your town, join our list by sending us a message here or emailing aleksandthedrummer@gmail.com. Please let us know what city you are from. If you ever signed up before, and you haven't gotten any emails, a little squirrel came by and ran off with it. Please sign up again. we try to be professionals, but really we eat our own poo.
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this means something
i try to suppress any unjust aversions to catchy-ness as enough unusualization happens by intuition in alignment with a premonition. so what do we sound like? people ask, I don't know. come to a show.
alert
Please keep the images you comment with small, thanks! or don't be sad if they go gone. loading the big obnoxious ones can plug the player up on slower connections and we want people to hear our music.. :) videos ok. and we love to see your pics from our shows.
olso make the effert to spel my name rite if your premoting an event were part off. Its a peve Ive had sints childhod. ALEKS, NOT ALEX. thanx. - Aleks Tomasczhewvshschszski
reviews, press, ink, ink blots, spots, stains
2009 : September : Chicago Tribune, "best Chicago concerts this Fall"
2009 : March : Pitchfork
..on "Paper Crown and Sugar Shoes" her breathy vibrato is almost soothing, until the song ascends with the grace and swagger of a 1970s rock-radio dinosaur.
While the band's palette of sounds is necessarily small, their melodies and inspirations are unpredictable, and they certainly have a few deft tricks when it comes to rhythm. The drums belong in the most rabid surf-punk outfit, and the Farfisa brings a nervy psychedelic edge, but Aleks Tomaszewska's graceful and powerful vocals are the most assertive element in a duo that juxtaposes old-world melodies with modern post-punk, giving their music a timeless-- or just out-of-time-- feel." -Jason Crock
2008 : November : The Deli Magazine, artist of the month"One of the strongest and most unique voices in the city belongs to Aleks Andra Tomaszewska. ... a duo that is without question bound for bigger things. When I first heard Aleks' voice I had a vision of a young Souixsie Souix, dark and echoing, and with each year and each song she becomes more impressive"
2008 : November : Exclaim Magazine"aleks's voice-amazingly strong yet still ultra-feminine...I never thought I’d utter these words, but I wanted to hear the man play a drum solo"
2008 : September : Pitchfork forkcast : "Where the headbanded Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan dipped her tribal toe, the equally headbanded, sci-fi Tomaszewka charges with "I Want to Melt His Eyes." The song, a slapdash of frantic with hyper-romantic..."-K. Galazka
2008/September : ChicagoIsMildlyInteresting : "I'm toying with an idea for a post called "The Best Albums of The Year (And Why I'm A Dumbass For Not Having Written About Them)". At the top of the list will be May A Lightning Bolt Caress You by local Chicago-based duo Aleks and The Drummer. Simply put, one of the best things I've heard all year."
2008/June : Chicago Reader : CRITIC'S CHOICE The drums sound like a horde of Krautrockers on horseback, the organ like an incoming storm—Sitek ran it through four amps at once—and Tomaszewska sounds like the raving art-school Valkyrie who’s running the show.
2008/ June : flavorpill.comAleksandra Tomaszewska lays twisty Farfisa runs over drummer Deric Criss' Ege Bamyasi-inspired mix of taut timekeeping and manic fills. The way Aleks' spooky warble mingles with her circus-like keyboard lines can give you the creeps (in the best possible way), but the band's mesmerizing brand of minimalism is completely its own.
2008/February : Centerstage : "the duo is one of the most original acts to come out of the local music scene in the past few years."
2008/February : UR Chicago Online Review of our show with Liars and No Age :
"Chicago’s own Aleks and the Drummer took a break from working on their forthcoming EP to warm up an icy crowd. Deric Criss’ tight, driving rhythms combined with Aleks’ circus-organ riffs and dark, melodic voice made for a pleasant, albeit unexpected, surprise. Charging through a set that included the brooding tunes, “I Want to Melt His Eyes” and “SZCZ,” Aleks and the Drummer set themselves apart from the current herd of guy/girl combos getting press as of late." - Rob McGee
2007/ : Oh my rockness "I've never heard a band quite like Aleks and the Drummer. Maybe that's why I keep listening."
2007/November : UR Chicago interview (PDF) "Even the wordiest
individual with an expansive knowledge of music would be
hard pressed to define the sounds that emit from Deric Criss’ drum
set and Aleks Tomaszewska’s slight figure and Farfisa organ. It
reminds you of the scary music that plays once you reach the boss
level of an old-school Super Nintendo game or the trills of a
Slavic woman inexplicably singing a Japanese anime theme song. "
2007/July : peoplewithanimalheads.blogspot.com : "Chicago's Aleks and The Drummer are definitely not a band you have heard before... wholeheartedly unique and inspiring. Singer/keyboardist Aleks Andra Tomaszewska perform music so intricate and interesting that you can be left a bit speechless."
2007/May : gapersblock.com : opening for Celebration : "...Their sound is part erie nightmare, part polka and part hypnotic dance music. Quite a mix, huh? It needs to be heard to be understood."
2007/March : Mule Magazine : As they started to play, the group quickly became one of my favorite Chicago live acts... hypnotizing "Castlevania" (the videogame) style organ in a non-cheesy way. The sound in an old-school Nintendo game fashion is fun in its own right, but the melodies are downright beautiful, picked up from somewhere in Eastern Europe... Watch out for the band's takeover and please pressure them to record an album, so you won't have to be lucky enough to just stumble upon them -- Thomas Cordova
2007/february : radiofreechicago.com : "Her voice is a force. Its powerful, urgent and wicked..." -- of deric's beats:" If I had not been there to observe it myself, I might have assumed they used some fantastic drum track."
2006/August : Chicago Reader--This local duo is one of an apparently dwindling number of bands gutsy and straightforward enough not to hide behind outfits or effect pedals or laptops. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's always worth watching. Aleksandra Tomaszewska sings deadpan and wobbly, often in her native Polish, and it's like she just has to or her chest will burst; she scribbles her fingers over a Farfisa and occasionally barks orders at the Drummer (aka Deric Criss), mostly to tell him to slow down. Their Gypsy emo is in the spirit of Victorian high drama--you want to have the smelling salts handy in case someone gets so hysterical she passes out. -- Liz Armstrong,
The Treatment --
Note: we have nothing against effects pedals, and Aleks is really into outfits!
Note 2: and Deric just got a new MacBook Pro. Hit him up to video chat. Or not.
Thank you good friend Todd Leibov for recording our first myspace recordings.
aleks, i hope you had a good birthday. sorry i didn't make it out last night, i lost my job yesterday and didn't feel much like partying. but now that i'm unemployed i will have more time on my hands so let's make some music or at least play a show together this summer.
i do love your music a lot and it needs to be said now. in my wildest dreams you are making your way to europe for a concert....everything would be close enough...
Check it out! I wrote a free book on music production! It's for total beginners, but if you aren't new to music production, maybe you'll still learn something... at least you can send it to your friends who always want to ask you a billion questions about music production! It's totally free too; my goal with this is to accumulate as many BFF's as possible.
we are nice people.
please join our mailing list at aleksandthedrummer@gmail.com. Include your city
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