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Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions FUNCORE IS HERE!! This band is unlike any other in the Veritas et Aequitas Records' Family and to be honest is unlike any other band in Michigan. These guys really leave an impression when you see them live and have a sound that you will surely fall in love with. Get ready to hear a lot about them because this sound is going to catch on fast. | | Reviews: THEIR TEETH WILL BE OF LIONS
EVERYONE MADE IT OUT ALIVE... ALMOST!
KALAMAZOO, MICH. | VERITAS ET AEQUITAS RECORDS
April 2008
The weirdest thing about the weirdo music Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions makes is how seriously they take having fun. They’ve packed a party into their spastic debut with shout-outs, Super Mario-sampling segues (“Brush Your Grillz”), games of Red Rover and gang spell-a-longs (“Nostradamus Knew Everything… Almost!”) fit for a haunted love-shack, like the one in Evil Dead 2. Whether co-vocalists Jenn Hampshire and Glenn Willis sing about spider-webs (“An Anxious Night Minus Television”) – and not the No Doubt ones, although Hampshire sometimes sounds like Gwen – or scream down skeletons with some of their friends in the local hardcore scene (“Belly of the Beast”), the band has enough energy to reanimate the most rigid indie fans. Listen now: myspace.com/theirteethwillbeoflions. — Eric Mitts Interviews: The growth of 'Funcore'
by John Liberty | Kalamazoo Gazette
The story (and outfits) behind 'Funcore'
Local bands turning live shows into theme parties to help keep scene afloat
The poor guy never had a chance.
He was in his 40s or 50s, and for all Glenn Willis of the local indie rock band Their Teeth Will Be of Lions knew, the guy was there to support someone in one of the other bands playing that night at The Corner Bar.
But he picked the wrong evening.
Ticket stub
Zombie Disco Party, CD release for Their Teeth Will Be of Lions, 9 p.m. April 12, The Corner Bar, 1030 E. Vine St., also with Brothers, Reinventing Yesterday, The Skies Revolt and Lee Butcher and the Ghoul Gang Slaughter. $6 or $4 with costume. 385-2028.
It was September, and the band was hosting its first of what is now a fairly popular event: a rock show theme party. The inaugural event was a graffiti party where people were told to wear white T-shirts and bring permanent markers to get a few bucks off of admission. As the night went on, people graffiti'd each other with sayings, crude drawings of certain private parts, phone numbers and more "dirty stuff." The energy level was high, people seemed to be digging it -- except our guy.
He didn't get the party memo and, unfortunately for him, selected a white T-shirt for the night's festivities. Complete strangers, caught up in the vibe of the show, walked up and wrote him a message.
"He was not very happy," Willis said. "I apologized to him after."
About six months and five theme parties later, Willis & Co. don't have much to be sorry about. The theme parties -- originally cooked up by Willis and Luke Forton of the local rock band Reinventing Yesterday -- seem to be a hit for the bands and venues alike. Willis and Forton refer to it as "funcore," and it basically means to try to have as much fun as you can while wearing something ridiculous.
"I'd actually like to see more bands try to pull something like it off, because it makes it a lot more fun for everyone involved," said Bruce Skaggs, manager and booking agent at the RedruM, which has hosted a couple of theme parties in recent months.
'Sick of the scene dying'
Willis and Forton's idea came out of desperation and annoyance. A number of live local music venues have closed in the past 18 months, and crowds keep shrinking, Willis said. Factor in a brutal winter and the worst economy in the nation, and things are pretty bleak for local bands or venues as of late.
"We were sick of the scene dying. People don't come out to shows anymore. So we were like, 'How can we help this? What would make it fun?,'" Willis said.
The answer: "A party. Once a month or every two months, throw a party. It's been doing very well."
So far, the two venues to embrace the idea have been The Corner Bar, 1030 E. Vine St., and the RedruM, 5301 E. Comstock Ave. The bands behind the shows typically ask their friends to play, but Willis said more and more bands are asking to perform, too, so they are looking to diversify the lineups. Local band Rumblehouse threw a similar party this winter at the RedruM.
Their Teeth Will Be of Lions are holding their next theme party at 9 p.m. April 12 at The Corner Bar along with local bands Brothers, Reinventing Yesterday, The Skies Revolt and Lee Butcher and the Ghoul Gang Slaughter. TTWBOL will be releasing its new 10-track CD, "Everyone Made It Out Alive ... Almost!"
'Funcore' spreading?
After seeing the turnout at one of the theme parties, The Corner Bar manager and booking agent Cara Park decided to celebrate her 28th birthday using the same idea. She threw a Superhero party in late January.
"It's definitely a good thing for the venues and for the bands," she said. "It brings out more people. It's like Halloween -- you get to act like a kid again. Plus, it takes money off the cover, and no one wants to pay the cover these days."
Park said she took her idea home to Marcellus, and a bar there carried on the tradition by throwing a pirates and ninjas bash.
While clearly the bands are using it as a marketing gimmick, there's more to it than that, TTWBOL vocalist Jenn Hampshire said. First off, it's a good fit for her band's personality.
"We're all pretty dramatic and theatrical," she said.
It's also a way to connect with fans -- something more and more bands are doing regularly courtesy of social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The theme parties become terrific photo ops for bands and music fans to share with each other. TTWBOL has a busy account through Photobucket.com, the free image hosting and photo/video sharing site.
"There's a lot of laughing and a lot of photos and smiles. We look so stupid, why not share these moments?" she said.
In a local music scene struggling to find its footing, stupid has never looked so smart.
Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions interview by Eric Mitts
Humor and the hardcore scene rarely go hand in hand. So a band like Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions has already clawed their own niche.
Coining the term "funcore" to describe their music and their various theme shows, the six-piece Kalamazoo band borrows from everything they listen to, and even some of their possibly undiagnosed psychological disorders, with bipolar shifts in tempo or tone, and plenty of A.D.D. randomness going on constantly within their songs.
"A kid in Indiana told us what he thought we reminded him of was, you know the show Robot Chicken, like at the title screen there's a big wall of television sets and it's just randomly flipping through them," guitarist Derek Feltner said. "That's what [our] songs are like. It's not, like, totally random. It's like you're going from the Home Shopping Network to Sportscenter to Cartoon Network and all around, but it's all stuff everybody likes."
The band has equally welcomed comparisons to bands like Mr. Bungle, The B-52s and Mindless Self Indulgence, but their influences extend well beyond that to include jazz, heavy metal and indie rock.
It's within the indie world where TTWBOL originated. After former Kalamazoo band Searchparty For Mel broke up last year because of creative songwriting differences, Feltner and vocalist Glenn Michael Willis decided they wanted to do something new together. At first, fellow former Searchparty member Bass Adam wasn't onboard with the change, but he came around to the idea before the band could even begin looking for a different bass player. Drummer Dustin Smith, formerly of Mulligan, Feltner's other band before Searchparty, was also part of their first idea for a band that would have likely jammed those two bands' sounds together.
"Any time you start something new, it's like dating a new girlfriend, you've got to almost forget about it until you move on," Willis said.
He then decided to ask his friend, guitarist Jason Mills from the Kalamazoo metal band Re-Inventing Yesterday, who he knew could play drums. He put them in contact with drummer Johnny G., who auditioned after meeting them at Fourth Coast Caf頩n Kalamazoo. While he had played in a garage band for five years, he hadn't played music in a while having regrettably joined a frat out of boredom when his old band broke up, and he'd definitely never done anything like TTWBOL before.
The four of them and their first synth player – the band's had a half-dozen since –nearly wrote two of the songs on their upcoming debut CD, Everyone Made It Out Alive... Almost!, within the first few days of practicing, before Willis decided he wanted something more vocally.
"A huge influence of mine, vocally, is a Chicago band called Hyper Viper!," Willis said. "So I thought, 'You know, it would be really cool if we got a girl singer that could sing high-pitched so that would free up me to do what I do with my voice.'" He added how he tries to work in vocal elements from his other influences including Mike Patton and Tom Waits.
Bass Adam objected to the idea of a girl singer at first, fearing the band would become too poppy.
"I didn't care as long as she was hot," John G. said.
A friend of one of the first five or six girls they first auditioned after posting a flier seeking a singer told them about vocalist Jenn Hampshire and, like they had with Johnny G., they clicked with her very quickly and asked her to join the band.
With the large lineup in place, the band then set about writing in a way that captured all of their different tastes and interests, including elements from everything ranging from hip-hop to jazz to metal to indie rock to funk.
"I didn't want to be in that band where I whined about my feelings... anymore," Willis said, explaining how he wanted to try different things lyrically and vocally from Searchparty For Mel. "I wanted to be the band that after our first song everyone's up and dancing."
"We try to be off-the-wall with every song – like, 'How can we really fuck with people on this part?'" Johnny G. said. "'What's the part that's going to throw them off?' But at the same time, by doing that, we sound like ourselves. There's no way you can play and not sound like yourself."
"Musically, we're people, so we listen to everything," Bass Adam said. "I mean, I listen to jazz, I listen to metal, not very often but..."
"But you've got a metal shirt on," Willis pointed out, laughing, indicating the Re-Inventing Yesterday T-shirt Adam had on while talking.
The band takes a while to write together, but when a new song finishes, they always end up laughing. Their unique sense of humor, one with an admittedly very dark overtone capable of including a pop-song about a necrophiliac doctor, carries through the sense of ridiculousness that they bring not only to their songs but to their live shows. Usually performing in a variety of crazy costumes, the band has hosted several theme shows, including a rock prom they held during a blizzard this past winter, where fans can take part in more than just the music.
At one such show, Brent Fisher, owner of Mt. Pleasant-based Veritas Et Aequitas Records, caught the band's set. At first he didn't like them, but after seeing them a second time, he got into it and decided to sign them to his mostly hardcore label.
Near the end of last year Fisher asked them to do a 10-song CD and put them into StudiOtte in Grand Rapids to record with Joel and Troy Otte, who are also TTWBOL's friends from playing in their band Brothers. The band had previously recorded a three-song demo at Sky Studios.
Brothers will join TTWBOL for the release of their CD, Everyone Made It Out Alive... Almost! April 12 at the Corner Bar in Kalamazoo. Other bands at the zombie-disco-themed show will include Re-Inventing Yesterday, Lee The Butcher and the Ghoul Gang Slaughter and The Skies Revolt. Hear songs off the disc now at myspace.com/theirteethwillbeoflions.
Chris Galligan
Lori Ann McAdam
Staff Writers
What happens when you take rock & roll, mix it with trace elements of hip-hop and strychnine, drown it in PBR, comb in danceable break downs and enchanting sing a longs, and sprinkle good old fashioned (non manufactured) punk rock on top? You get Kalamazoo locals "Their Teeth Will be of Lions," a band you should acquaint yourself with.
The band is a six-piece outfit consisting of two vocalists utilizing their male and female dynamics, and one guitar player, keyboardist, bass player, and drummer.
Lead singer Glenn Michael Willis mixes hooks and one-liners, while he shimmies across the stage with this Jimmy Stewart suicidal sexual swagger.
Vocalist Jenn Hampshire, who is Audrey Hepburn glamorous, croons the audience in her Venus-like silhouette.
Derek Feltner's guitar work is almost as bipolar as Glenn's on stage persona, constantly shifting styles.
"Bass-Adam" comprises a solid back bone to the music: jazzy up's and downs mixed with the reverb of old school punk 4/4 patterns make the perfect accoutrement to "Jonny G's" style of drumming.
All of this set to the stylings of newcomer Josh Finck's very danceable keyboard architecture. The music itself does not adhere to any particular pattern, category, or style; and the band reflects that every time they take the stage.
The band formed out of the ashes of a previous rock & roll endeavor known as "Search Party for Mel." The band spoke fondly of their time in the previous band, and Willis cited it as a very positive learning experience for TTWBOL. When asked what happened to the old, awkward glances we're passed around and "Bass-Adam" spoke up with one simple answer "we grew up."
"Someone told me we sounded like Mr. Bungle… I can die happy now," a very serious Hampshire said.
"It's a lot like watching monkeys…we're random and unpredictable" Feltner said.
The two vocalist dynamic works very well for the band as the dance swing and sway with the sounds. Often times the band takes the show to new level of crowd participation inciting riotous dance movements from the crowd, random silly string spraying, and of course one can not forget the marvelous costumes. Young band's career moving fast
Justin A. Hinkley
The Enquirer KALAMAZOO — Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions' sound is like a broken pop record.
The Kalamazoo band, six members strong, plays a brand of music that takes pop sensibilities and stretches them until they're barely recognizable. With staccato drum patterns, boundless melodies and abnormal vocal harmonies, TTWBOL epitomize the term "experimental."
"We're writing music that is interesting and different, without trying too hard to be interesting and different," bassist Adam (no last name given) said. "We just take elements from genres and genres and genres."
"There are no limits in this band," vocalist Glenn Willis added.
Adam, Willis and guitarist Derek Feltner stayed together after their previous band, Search Party For Mel, broke up earlier this year because of creative differences.
The trio, like Adam said, "couldn't imagine not playing music." So, in May, they started interviewing other musicians and recruited organist Josh Fink, drummer John Giganti and vocalist Jenn Hampshire.
Willis said he wanted his new band to take a different, more optimistic direction.
"In Search Party, I poured out my heart," he explained. "I've found other ways to do that now. I talk to people now. Now, with this band, I wanna do something a bit more poppy and experimental. We took a path (with TTWBOL) doing music we love and can experiment with, but with poppy elements as well."
"The lyrics (in TTWBOL) are not near as personal, but they're fun," Adam added.
The lyrics now, like the music, are generated with nearly equal input from all members, and topics range from perceptions of people to abstract beliefs to events band members have experienced.
"We each have our own songs," Hampshire said. "A lot of the songs have their own theme, like some are about people I know or how fake people can be."
"I add the fun hooks," Willis said. "(Jenn) writes the serious stuff."
The music is written in group workshops where every member has vote and veto rights, but the musicians stressed TTWBOL is not a jam band. One or two of them will come with an idea, and as a group they shape it into a solid composition. With six members, that's a lot of ideas flowing around, and it shows through the group's music.
"We figure if we get as many people in the band as we can, we'll get as many ideas as we can," Giganti joked.
Perhaps what most sets the band apart from others is the unique vocal dynamic between Willis and Hampshire. Strange inflections, off-beat delivery and a give-and-take cadence mark every TTWBOL song. It's a sound somewhere between modern-day techno-rock like Mindless Self Indulgence and retro 1980s alternative like The B-52s.
"Glenn's got weird deflections in his voices," Hampshire said with a laugh. "Like straight-up ADD."
As a six-month-young band, TTWBOL's career has moved at least twice as fast as most groups enjoy. In October, the group was signed to the Mt. Pleasant-based Veritas Et Aequitas Records. The label normally supports only heavier metal bands, but the owner of the label and his girlfriend became fans of the TTWBOL after seeing them perform at a Central Michigan University show.
"(The owner's girlfriend) pretty much told (the owner) he was stupid if he didn't sign us," Willis said.
The group has a three-track, $3 demo available at its shows and expects to release a full-length album in April.
The musicians say they're not sure what might have led to their success. They don't take the business of music too seriously.
"It's good to have goals; it's better to have dreams," Adam said.
The band does rely on collaboration, working with fellow bands such as fellow Kalamazoo group Re-Inventing Yesterday, to book gigs and cross-promote each other.
"We believe in family," Willis said.
In the end, the band's ambitions, unlike their music, are simple.
"Our main goal is to make people forget about life for 30 minutes when we play," Willis said. "We need bands that challenge our thinking, but we're not that band."
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