Last night I had a hard time to go to bed and sleep because I got overly excited when The Teskey Brothers announced that they will release their second record "Run Home Slow" on Friday August 2. At the same time, the band has pulished the album’s celebratory first single and video for their song "Hold Me" which is available on all audio and video streaming services now. No question I had to add it to my Songpickr 2019 playlist immediately and slightly re-arrange the running order of the tracks on the list to match the tone of the new Teskey song.
I was lucky to already hear the full album in advance and "Hold Me" feels like a fitting introduction to what is a raw, honest and masterfully crafted album. The single sees The Teskey Brothers strip back to their most rudimentary form; boots stomping on floorboards, claps holding the beat and four friends harmonising around a single microphone while lead singer Josh Teskey rouses the pack with opening line: “That storm coming down hard, I’m your shelter anytime it starts”. It’s a primal, haunting reminder of what The Teskey Brothers can do with just their voices, hands, feet and a few instruments.
Watch the new "Hold me" video here...
Over the 11 wide-ranging tracks on Run Home Slow, The Teskey Brothers (singer Josh Teskey, guitarist Sam Teskey, bassist Brendan Love and drummer Liam Gough) more than deliver on the promise of their debut record "Half Mile Harvest" (2017) and manage to pull off a feat that has eluded many other bands. They have followed up a breakthrough debut with an album that not only pushes their music in new directions and in the process solidifies their sound into something truly their own but they’ve done it without sacrificing any of the charm and authenticity that endeared them to their ever-growing audience in the first place.
“We were really aware that we didn’t want to alienate fans,” Liam says. “We love our fans and feel really proud of the first album, but the second album needed to be a step up.” To help them navigate this process they enlisted the help of producer Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, St Paul & The Broken Bones, Andrew Bird, Nick Waterhouse) who flew in to work with the band at their home studio in Warrandyte, Victoria. In Paul, The Teskey’s found both a mentor and critic who would allow them to progress sonically without losing the raw simplicity and space they had achieved on "Half Mile Harvest". Nerd fact: Paul Butler was also the band leader of the British band The Bees who were nominated for the Mercury Prize for Newcomer of the Year in 2002.
Avoiding genre labels is something that the band have strived for musically on "Run Home Slow", incorporating elements of Soul, Blues, Southern Rock, Americana, Psychedelia, Dixieland Jazz, Gospel and a surprise striking "Pop" (yet still unmistakably The Teskey Brothers!) centrepiece. On "Run Home Slow", The Teskey Brothers have made an album that honors their past, resonates wonderfully in the present and looks forward to a continually brighter future.
The highly anticipated announcement of the band’s sophomore album comes on the eve of the band’s sold-out Australian tour which kicks off at The Zoo tomorrow in Brisbane followed by Oxford Art Factory in Sydney on Friday 10 May, before four Melbourne shows at Howler (Saturday 11 May), Gasometer (Monday 13 May), The Night Cat (Tuesday 14 May) and Northcote Social Club (Thursday 16 May).
Watch the space for more The Teskey Brothers exciting news in the coming weeks and months. Here's a smart link to everything you need right now: