"This Shit is Awesome. However, I have to be honest. The EP sat on my desk for a few weeks with the myriad others that usually end-up in the graveyard of emo and singer songwriter crapola that we receive so much of. I was frankly surprised by the five impassioned and haunting songs that The Tontons served up on their debut EP Sea and Stars. I hate to say nice things about local bands. Dammit..."
"Even coming away with one legitimate discovery at SXSW makes the whole enterprise worthwhile, so it was both ironic and appropriate that my discovery this year comes from Houston. This wasn’t so much discovery as confirmation: I knew about the Tontons before, from several testimonials and their MySpace page, but after watching them Thursday. Starting with a pair of slow psych-blues jams underneath 19-year-old singer Asli Omar’s Billie Holliday-like vocals (which, again, were pretty hard to discern, but she’s got some pipes), they picked up the tempo for some weatherbeaten, enigmatic modern rock not far at all from PJ Harvey. They closed with a hoppy go-go R&B number that slowly mutated into a funky Hendrix-like freakout from guitarist Adam Martinez, who didn’t let the fact that he somehow forgot his gear back in Houston stop him from singing the speakers. I can’t recommend their gig next Friday at Warehouse Live highly enough, especially since Omar is currently studying art history at the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia and only makes it back to Houston every three months or so."
Atmosphere-wise, they're like the bar band playing in some film adaptation of a William Gibson cyberpunk novel set a few decades into the future -- mysterious and alluring, but still murky, dirty, and maybe even a little dangerous. Sure, Omar's vocals are responsible for a large part of that, but fellow Tontons Adam Martinez, Justin Martinez, and Tom Nguyen deserve credit, too, for managing to take a sound that could easily be retreaded to death (and which probably will, in the post-Amy Winehouse era) and grafting it onto edgier sensibilities. The result is a set of smoky-sounding songs that swipe the best aspects of blues, jazz, and rock and crush them all together into some shiny new substance. I don't know what the hell it's called, but I want more of it.
EP Review from SpaceCityRock
are you excited for addy to move?i wasnt for keifer but i guess yesterday he went to go visit and refused to back to the 2s and stayed with sharen the hole day! i think addy will do fine because she is very sassy so the bigger kids wont pick on her:)she moves monday? you gonna be able to help her out? did you ever start on them online survey things i told you about? i hope you did, i just another check, this was for $237 from 2 weeks ago. if you didn't yet, pshhh, get on it; i guess you'll have to type the link into internet explorer or whatever, but here it is again:
are you excited for addy to move?i wasnt for keifer but i guess yesterday he went to go visit and refused to back to the 2s and stayed with sharen the hole day! i think addy will do fine because she is very sassy so the bigger kids wont pick on her:)she moves monday? you gonna be able to help her out? did you ever start on them online survey things i told you about? i hope you did, i just another check, this was for $237 from 2 weeks ago. if you didn't yet, pshhh, get on it; i guess you'll have to type the link into internet explorer or whatever, but here it is again:
Dude, y'all owned @ the CAMH!!! But can I make one small request? Can you *pretty* please be respectful and not sound check over other artists' sets? I was pretty hacked during the first two songs of your show because I came to see Jeff Mac. Glad I stuck it out because you guys ROCK and I'm gonna drag as many ppl as possible to your next show. Thanks!
i remember when a friend of mine had your ep... around august or september last year i think, she gave it to me and i couldnt stop listening to it. what im tryin to say is, your music is addicting.
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