Todd
BIOGRAPHY
- Craig Clouse: Vocals/Guitars
- Lawrence Price: Guitars
- Fifi Cernosek: Vocals/Keyboards
- Christian St. Christian: Drums
TODD, London's most primal chaotic rock unit, return this year with their gnarliest fruit yet! Comes To Your House - a pressurised can of unruly jams, rhythmic freakouts and floored mixer estrangement. But where are they coming from? Man they have one sick story!
Craig Clouse (pictured with the twins) is a Texan in London. He has a history of making anti-social noise Stateside, playing in legendary Austin, Texas hardcore band Crown Roast and before embarking on stints with Negative Step and Amphetamine Reptile's hardcore saviours Hammerhead. After relocating to London he assembled Todd as result of a 4AD request to support The Breeders at a "secret" show in between their two 2002 All Tomorrow's Parties appearances. Playing in a packed venue, they made quite an impression, which led to many fantastic shows to follow, including SXSW Festival (Austin, Texas) in March 2003 and 2004, as well as a return to All Tomorrow's Parties (Camber Sands, UK) the very same month. Their debut release, a 5-song EP on Loose Lips Sink Ships (2002), earned them a 5K review in Kerrang. It wasn't long before Southern Records fell in love with the carnage and signed em up like lightning. TODD's debut full length Purity Pledge was released by Southern Records in 2004 to much critical praise, they got the cover of premier Underground music magazine Loose Lips Sink Ships, Mojo called them a "fire-breathing colossus of sardonic, twisted metal". Kerrang compared the album to In Utero, drawing similarities between the "lean, acrid power" of both albums. Q meanwhile preferred to get Biblical on the band comparing them to Samson "pulling the house down to prove a valid musical point". Uncut loved the "loud, ugly and unremmitingly heavy" nature of the album, with Rock Sound proclaiming that "TODD can rock seven fucking bells out of almost anyone", that certainly included Terrorizer journo Ben Crudgington who for me summed it all up:
"Purity Pledge is a fuzzing, crushing beast of an album. This power is nothing but incredibly enhanced by their live show."
Since the album was released, the band took to touring the UK and Europe, playing a vast array of incendiary gigs, often ending in unceremonious chaos, it was during a recent jaunt to Europe that they met new guitarist Lucky The Horse in a brothel in Vienna (less is more). Since then, the band have concentrated their efforts on finishing new album Comes To Your House, and let me tell you it doesn't dissapoint. Yes, the riffs are still present, and yes CTYH is one helluva heavy beast, but this new album has the fuck cranked to 11 and the `what the hell?' in the red. It's startling blast of life from one of the most exciting and deranged acts out there. But you can judge that for yourselves as the band are now planning on coming to you town, it ain't rubbernecking if the accident is on purpose. A UK and European tour are both in the works for August this year!
