If Super Mario Bros. were to turn on, tune in, and drop out, they might just sound like Truman Peyote. As heard in a recent podcast from the great Phoning It In series (MP3), the group plays psychedelic pop noise, a mix of overclocked keyboards and numerous unidentifiable sound sources whose muddy, blissfully ritualized affect is all the more lo-fi, humble, and evocative thanks to this particular mode of distribution. See, the modus operandi at Phoning It In is to have acts play their sets, literally, over the phone line to KDVS radio in Davis, California (where I had a radio show many years ago myself). What vocals there are are filtered through enough equipment to make Tom Waits’ megaphone seem like a crystalline representation.
The Boston-based (and, according to this recording, Los Angeles”“bound) group’s MySpace page lists it as consisting of Eric Farber and Caleb Johannes and a handful of occasional supporting musicians, and this particular performance features Johannes, Miles Coe, and Sydney Howard.
More on the group’s performance at phoningitin.net. More on Truman Peyote at myspace.com/trumanpeyotemusic and twitter.com/tptptptptptptp.