Texas slowcore outfit Teethe has returned with new music in the form of their dreamily haunting new single “Moon.” Shared as part of the nineteenth installment of Saddle Creek’s Document Series — a showcase of DIY talent from around the country — the track is a beguiling offering from the Dallas-based five-piece. One that serves as a perfect introduction to those who’ve yet to plunge into the wistful surreality that characterizes their music.
With one album to their name and a handful of singles, Teethe crystalizes around the talents of five friends who met while attending the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. It was within this small college town that various members of local bands — Dead Sullivan, Crisman, MAH EE OH, and Hat Hair — found themselves coalescing around shared musical interests.
Boone Patrello (Dead Sullivan), Grahm Robinson (MAH KEE OH), Madeline Dowd (Crisman), and Jordan Garrett (Hat Hair) eventually all moved in together to form what would become Teethe. Their 2020 self-titled debut album Teethe soon followed, cementing their sound in mercurial instrumentation and pensive lyrics.
The record finds the band wandering a sprawling landscape of downtempo doldrums, one adorned with sonic spaciousness and withered by gusts of mournful vocals. From the alluring malaise of songs like “Dwell” to the paced growths of spellbinding guitars and droning atmospherics that slowly manifest on “Punch.”
It’s the kind of music you can just disappear effortlessly into, allowing yourself to be carried away in the unfurling layers of poignant melodies, finding new elements within their intricate crescendos to be spellbound by. Further standouts on the album include the nearly anthemic climax of “Giant Man” and bristling riffs that buzz through “On Everything.”
Two years later Teethe reemerged with “Tag,” a morose meandering through their most languid soundscape to date, and the far more sonorous as well as delightfully dreary “Lucky.” Once again revealing their impeccable talent for transcending that fine line between the doleful and the yearningly sublime.
Their latest single “Moon” holds fast to the nuanced minimalism that has lent their music such a deeply affecting emotionality. But it also finds them stepping out from behind the draperies of sound that engulf their music, while the song’s melodic lushness is perhaps the most resonant they’ve ever sounded.
Teethe said of the song: “Moon is a song about love until death and the dreaming, inhibited moon – a circle that forever fades and grows, symbolizing the cycles we live in, the gravity of expectations, isolation, and the credence of loss and growth.”
The music video for “Moon” is a touchingly bittersweet illustration of those themes. One that mingles the band’s enchanting musicality with a fairytale-esque story. The sketch-like animation unfolds as a conversation between the moon and a lonely individual who stares up at it from a town far below — the latter eventually building a massive brick structure in the hopes of reaching that elusive celestial body.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Teethe on their Bandcamp and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Watch the music video for “Moon” the new single from Teethe.
