NYC RODEO-CORE GROUP DEAD TOOTH ANNOUNCE SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM FOR JULY 18 RELEASE VIA TRASH CASUAL
New York City’s rodeo-core/post-punk outfit, Dead Tooth, led by songwriter Zach Ellis, have announced their self-titled debut album for a July 18 release via Trash Casual. With the announcement comes the record’s first single, “You Never Do Shit,” along with a boy band styled dance video, directed by Ellis and choreographed by Nola Sporn Smith, which premiered this morning via FLOOD. Dead Tooth will be previewing the record with a run of northeast dates starting next Monday, May 12 in Washington DC [all dates below]. Watch + share “You Never Do Shit” via YouTube.
In all of its dark disco glory “You Never Do Shit” is told from the POV of a beleaguered musician turning to a life of crime. It is a powerful introduction to Ellis’s penchant for bringing to life overblown personas that lampoon the absurd state of the universe.
“Originally this song was a demo for a fictional TV band called ‘Ex Post Facto’,” notes Ellis.“Our publishing company had put out a call for a couple songs to be written for the TV band in an Apple TV show called City on Fire that was based in NYC’s early 2000’s music scene.” Other writers for the show’s band include Muzz (featuring Interpol‘s Paul Banks and The Walkmen‘s Matt Barrick), Slow Pulp and Been Stellar. “The prompt was to write something in your own unique voice that sounded like it may have come from the early aughts, which is kind of what I do already[laughs]. Before I moved to New York in ‘09 I was chasing the tail end of the DFA disco punk movement. My friends and I would often take the bus to the city to see bands like the Rapture and TV on the Radio so this song just came naturally for me. Of the two demos I submitted they ended up going with the other one, aptly titled “City on Fire,” to be recorded by Jason Hill featuring members of the Voids and the Killers, but I got to keep this one and turn it into a Dead Tooth song. It was a win win! I sent the band that demo to learn and we tracked it with the winnings of a band tournament we had just won at Our Wicked Lady. I remember we played a show the night before going into the studio and my voice felt extra raspy. I was planning on retaking the vocals at a later date but Billy Aukstik had this really cool old broadcast mic set up and the sound was perfect for the vibe of the song so we just kept the scratch vocals and that’s what you hear on the record.”
Dead Tooth (the album) fearlessly plays out like a 90s blockbuster, replete with grandiose melodrama, black humor and larger-than-life character arcs. As near atonal hooks escape from Ellis’s taut vocal cords, they echo a world where global and personal crises collide like a chalk-white iceberg into the belly of the RMS Titanic. With mother nature on the skids and humanity floundering in desperation, the band sets the scene in the medium of menacing guitar feedback, blistering saxophone and pell-mell poetics.
Dead Tooth initially began as a collaboration between Ellis and DIIV guitarist Andrew Bailey when both worked at the same diner in Brooklyn NY. The project soon built into a four-piece that released the EPs Still Beats (2018, Five Kill Records) and Pig Pile (2022, Trash Casual) earning acclaim from NME, Spin, New Noise and more. The latest iteration of the band has had an uptick in urgency and, dare we say, fun? Touring vigorously the past year, across the eastern U.S. multiple times, as well as their first foray into Europe and the UK, their reputation for high-powered, celebratory shows makes them the artist of choice for a slew of shared bills few others could fit on. From supporting theatrical thrash metal legends GWAR, sharing a fashion show afterparty with rap veteran Juellz Santana, to garage punks Bass Drum Of Death, Dead Tooth have answered the call and are now here to deliver their first full length record.
Dead Tooth was tracked in multiple studios across NYC’s outer boroughs in sessions stretching from 2022-2024, with Ellis handling vocals & rhythm guitar, Taylor Mitchell on lead guitar, John Stanesco on EWI & saxophone, James Duncan on bass and Ginno Tacsiat on drums. The eleven songs arrive as a cohesive set, thanks in part to the deft touch of mixing engineer Tom Beaujour (Nada Surf, Juliana Hatfield). With effects and overdubs at a minimum, Dead Tooth exudes a rawness that brings the sweat and clamor of a packed Brooklyn basement into the privacy of your very own speakers.
The result is a committed undertaking to unveil 21st century living in all of its unvarnished depravity.
Tour Dates:
05/12 – Washington, DC @ The Pie Shop
05/13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Lodge
05/14 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G
05/15 – Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
05/16 – Burlington, VT @ Radio Bean
05/17 – Somerville, MA @ Union Tavern
05/19 – Littleton, NH @ The Loading Dock
05/20 – Montclair, NJ @ The Meatlocker
05/23 – Queens, NY @ Trans-Pecos
Connect with Dead Tooth + Trash Casual
For additional information on Dead Tooth, please contact:
Brendan Bourke • The Syndicate • 347.564.2927 • brendan@thesyn.com
