Lemon Twigs

you guys not come across these loons yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ4nqnVOfMo

These loons? Divers be diversifyin'

Anyway, this just sounds like nondescript, blandly stylish hipster throwback fare, what about it makes you like them?

there's a Rundgren thing going on all over the album (which is on Spotify), it's quite nice. I Wanna Prove To You is probably the standout so far. also an MGMT thing going on i guess.

these guys are from my hometown. my high school orchestra teacher is a mutual friend of mine and the older brother's.

They're awesome - McDonald brothers of Redd Kross / Donnie & Joe / Rundgren / Jellyfish vibe

i can't believe how young they are.

i like this
napoleon stardust

they were on french tv for a live performance yesterday.
I had never heard of them.
it was retro, clumsy, affected and very teenage poseurs but it had an unexpected charm and energy.
the singer/guitarist has a pete townshend shtick that could be either annoying or funny...
I'm not sure they're not just a joke though.

pretty interesting stuff to my ear, whoever's making the decisions about how the vocal layering works has some really good ideas. ditto that bass tone in the verses during the song whose video starts this thread. the whole LOOK, GOOFBALLS thing is a huge turnoff to me but whatcha gonna do, crowded market right

watch this if you like fun and excitement

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p055w63c/glastonbury-2017-the-lemon-twigs

new EP out today - material from 2015. this is a super interesting band.

http://www.4ad.com/releases/855

I took my short legged woman
To the dance last night
We watched the highway patrol
Take selfies with Nardwuar
Nardwuar

occasionally sound like Big Star to my ears

did a live set / interview with Pseu Braun a couple weeks back

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/81202

i think they are from my neck of the woods. syosset, long island? a town away from where i grew up. i think they're from the d'addario family that makes the guitar strings.

Hicksville, in fact.

if i was in LA, i'd go to see them at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next month.

they were hardworking child actors 10-15 years ago

a few songs on this evoke early-to-mid-period Bee Gees for me, which is an itch I seldom get scratched

These guys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVVAF6OMvPw

Rod Argent talks with the Lemon Twigs

https://www.talkhouse.com/a-conversation-with-the-zombies-rod-argent-and-the-lemon-twigs/

that's really sweet!

new single "The One" is splendid. album's out May 1st

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TNVOqRLBwU

Cracker!

"Live in Favor of Tomorrow" off the new album is such a solid Roy Wood pastiche that when I get it stuck in my head I can only hear his voice singing it.

...I mean, the one that immediately follows it kinda does likewise, doesn't it?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tO88U7ds4

They keep switching out the *other* members don't they? I used to like the old set-up; a guy on drums and a girl on bass. But then it changed and may even have changed again i dunno. Hard band to keep up with.

Seems they've pretty much recorded just the two of them and the live band was changed after the 1st album.

Enjoyed the overall vibe of Go To School a lot with a few standout faves, but perhaps in keeping with the title this record has a bunch of songs that really *pop* in a way I wouldn’t have expected from anyone in the current crop of rock-nostalgia cosplayers. If this is still a thing you want in 2020 you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone doing it better.

the vocals are a lot as usual but there are a handful of stone killer jams on the new one (again, as usual)

the hyper retro production is maybe a little too on-the-nose

some noses are pretty hot though

also it really dives off a cliff at the end

HELL ON WHEELS
HELL ON WHEELS
DIRTY SCREAMING WHITE HOT JEANS

Only one comment concerning Songs From The General Public? I love them so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdzDRhTTfnc

I should listen to this whole album. Been hearing "Corner of My Eye" and "In My Head" on the radio a lot, both pretty great.

I really never got these guys until Everything Harmony, which I only heard this autumn and has swiftly become one of my favourite records of all time. The pop is so sweet and so sad, they have no fear of coming off too cheesy or seeming uncool - like, there are songs here that sound like they could have been written by Barry Manilow, and I am 100% there for it. The backstory to the record - that they wrote it for a beloved relative who has dementia, and channelled the 60s/70s soft-pop of her youth in these songs, and that the theme bleeds into the lyrics in subtle ways - really makes it land as well. I've been listening back to their earlier stuff and it's really not clicking for me like Everything Harmony, but this album is so strong. Can't wait to hear what they do next.

the whole LOOK, GOOFBALLS thing is a huge turnoff to me

it was for me, too. but really worth listening beyond.

Get the feeling Michael is reigning in his more theatrical vocals recently

this is one of my most "i should love this but i just can't seem to" bands of all-time.

that context for the new one, though, might help. i will listen again.

I can really enjoy them in small doses.

Is it the skinny tank tops that puts you off?

I think they were very much styled like a lot of "ironic" bands from the late-90s that would feature in style mags I occasionally worked for, and I hated those bands so much, and I think that was the disconnect for me. But it's very clear, from this latest record, and what I hear when I delve into their back catalogue, that there's little cynical irony at play, that this is very much from the heart and they mean it, maaaan, and that works better for me with this sort of music than some feigned distance. I definitely screwed up, in other words.

yah they are amazing

this is one of my most "i should love this but i just can't seem to" bands of all-time

Same! I wish I liked anything else by them as much as "The One"

they work best live i think

this beach boys/beatles cover is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn7_vC18mlE

Opening track on the new album is so lovely. Like pretty much everyone here I was highly suspicious of these guys but stevie's entusiasm for them has got me thinking

Great live vocals on that clip.

They remind me of Emitt Rhodes - they sound amazing! But the songwriting isn't quite there for me.

New album could be a grower through

I'm really getting into their album from last year. Like Stevie, their image was kind of a turn-off for me too but the songs are there. I must go back to their earlier stuff again. They are retro but not slavishly so imo.

To be honest the first time I heard it I didn't have many thoughts on it - there's definitely more of a Beatles influence than their last two, it's pitch perfect in many ways but I kinda wondered, okay, whats the point? But then after a few listens you kind of get over the concept and the fact that this very retro-sounding music was released less than a week ago and the songs themselves really shine. Yesterday I played the whole album twice in a row which reminds me of the time I was getting into The Kinks and was doing the same thing - some of their CDs didn't leave my car for a week.

So yes, the album is great, just like the last two, but I can't help but wonder where they're going next. This album seems designed to be played live (and I think the brothers have said as much) and their songwriting is so locked in at this point that I really want to see them branch out and get weird again. I'm not really sure what the trajectory for a band like this is supposed to be. It reminds me of certain retro-prog acts which I think do absolutely nail the sound they're doing for, and are fairly consistent from album to album, but since they've been stuck in 1972 forever there's not much to actually get excited about. I think where a band like this can really get interesting is if they go in a direction that the Beach Boys should've pursued but didn't. But in the meantime yeah, great stuff, probably gonna be my most listened to new release of the year.

I really love the new one, and it's definitely a grower, and the songs are insanely catchy - like, their catchiness of these songs will legit drive you insane. As for where they go next, I guess they could end up in this retro cul-de-sac, and I've no doubt they're craftsmen enough to flourish within it. But I'm haunted by Michael raving, when I interviewed them in 2024, about a solo record Brian had done where he played everything and the reference point, Michael said, was Stevie Wonder's early 70s stuff. I want to hear that record. I want to hear it very much.

That’s funny, i’ve been thinking Stevie Wonder was the reference point for ‘Gather Round’- i just have a feeling that lost Brian album might be less of a departure than you’d hope.

the way i hear this one structurally is like, Michael has a clear producer’s vision for the (consistent, homogenous) sound and style of the album to which Brian doesn’t (can’t or won’t) conform, and his songs are mostly outliers.

So yes, the album is great, just like the last two, but I can't help but wonder where they're going next.

tbc i don’t think this one is as good as either EH or ‘a dream…’ but still really great and also, you know, it’s only been a few days.

*assuming and discarding

one thing I was a bit disappointed about on "Fire and Gold" - live, Danny's backing vocal on the chorus was pretty loud, and the way he hits that one long, sustained note reminded me a lot of the best They Might be Giants songs. it's still there on the studio recording but it's a lot quieter.

pretty heady review of the new album (though it's really more about what the Twigs do in general) - I like the notion that it's not really about nostalgia or revivalism, but rather taking something old seriously again

https://jeevesmag.substack.com/p/the-lemon-twigs-look-for-your-mind

I try to stay out of discussions of this band but for fucks sake, they are only about nostalgia lol. they have no fans under 50

I just saw them a couple weeks ago and that’s definitely not true

I saw them once but can't really remember the age distribution... I'm just going by anyone who asks about them being a 50+ Mojo reader.

Saw them with a festival crowd of 20-30 something's and people under 50 were very much into it

i know plenty of twigs fans under 50. this is their best album, i think. i've been resistant to their revivalism for a while, but they still managed to get me with a song or two each album and this time around, like 10 or 11 songs are clicking for me. it's hard to deny their craft at this point

crowd of 20-30 something’s

same. but also, who cares

I try to stay out of discussions of this band

good idea! try harder

i only read the last paragraph of that substack piece but it seems about right, or at least on the right track

re: recent discussion of stylistic direction and next steps, i’m mostly listening for their personal development, wisdom and empathy (especially Brian’s) which are even more impressive than their craft. as long as they keep that up i think i’m actually fine with them ending up in a "retro cul-de-sac"

saw them last night, for the first time. been obsessed with them since everything harmony. they were so fucking good. I could absolutely see myself following them round the country next time they hit the UK.

i can't really think of anything more tedious than trying to pillory them for the nostalgia angle - like, it's such an easy get, but it misunderstands what they do and purposefully seeks to reject the joy in it, which is a dumb thing to do when you have only a short time on earth. they're steeped in pop history, they have the craft and desire to recreate it - but these are new songs. and they are great. and their time machine is a tardis that zips about unpredictably - the new one is straight 60s coded, but even the last one, which friends of mine who loved everything harmony wrote off as pastiche, is Beach Boys one minute, Wings next, and then sounds like Squeeze. and the songs are SO GOOD, and their lyrics are excellent.

i wasn't 100% sold on the new one when I got the review stream, because it seemed the record most open to accusations of pastiche of all their records. but the actual songs are so great the whole project quickly becomes irresistible for me. and like I say, last night the charm and the craft and the goofy brothers and their goofy friends and the brilliant pop and the crashing wave of wonderfulness was just sublime.

I guess the test for me isn't whether or not they can replicate the greats of the 60s but if they can bring back the feelings you got when you were really getting into those records. As I mentioned upthread the way I've wanted to just put this album on repeat very much reminds me of when I was getting into The Kinks and would just play Village Green Preservation Society on a nonstop loop. The way some of the choruses will just plant themselves in my head all day is something I used to experience with certain Todd Rundgren songs. There's a very specific psychic connection there and maybe you just forget those sorts of feelings until something like this brings them back. Ditto for the collab they did with Thundercat - I'm not particularly a fan of Steely Dan, but there are things I like about them very much, and hearing that song just jabs that button in my brain.

As far as ending up in the "retro cul-de-sac"...I mean, I'm fine if they keep running in place if they're gonna be putting out albums like this or the last two, but I'd really love to hear them enter a psychedelic phase. I think they're at the point where they could attempt something like A Wizard, A True Star and I think they'd kill it.

I saw this band two years ago…liked it just fine, my wife who likes normie rock and roll enjoyed it… but it is tedious and indeed basic when an act is focused on Revolver/Beach Boys/Kinks/Who/Todd/Monkeees/power pop and nothing else

who do you guys think would be acts from the past, oh I don't know, 55 years that this band likes or is inspired to emulate? Would they like Fountains of Wayne? Ween? Flaming Lips? Prince? Paisley Underground? What do you guys hear in them that is not the obvious shit that, say, Shoes would have trafficked in in 1977?

^^^^ this is definitely a good faith conversation I would like to engage in, not

yeah these cats are great and i don't feel the need to overanalyize them at all

would i like to hear their take on ween? sure. Paisley Underground? I hear the Rain Parade in them sometimes but again I enjoy them so much i don't really care

Michael told me a couple of years ago that Brian's recorded a solo album indebted to 70s-era Stevie Wonder. I would kill to hear that, tbh.

But "these guys suck because they sound like bands from 60 years ago! They should sound like bands from 50 years ago instead!" seems a chud-minded gambit, tbh

Like, I guess what I love in them is what I love in the obvious shit, too. But also, I think they're great lyricists. Go To School is a hilarious social satire and vamp on the 80s teen movie. Everything Harmony is dark and sad and about death, depression and losing your loved ones to dementia. A Dream Is All We Know is about the Lemon Twigs themselves, trying hard to make it making the music they love but being aware their dad "failed" chasing that same dream (though they're proudly protective of their dad's talents). The new one has some really fun love songs, and a really interesting political song (Gather Round). If I wanted to listen to sonically challenging, disturbing, alienating music, which I often do, I'd simply listen to other bands. I know what I'm after when I listen to the Twigs, and I'm not aware of anyone else doing it better.

Yea the thing about their dad is a pretty fascinating story. I've heard his one professionally recorded album (Take in a Show) and it's pretty good. Not as good as the Twigs but you can totally hear where they got everything from. In interviews it sounds like their dad was playing stuff around the house all the time and was always creating music even if no one was hearing it. Anyway one thought I had seeing them was that I bet their brand of 60s revivalism might've really killed in the 90s, back when songs like "The Way" by Fastball were bona fide hits with plenty of Beatles DNA in them. Or maybe not? Maybe the reason why they've found success and their dad didn't is because now nobody else is doing what they're doing? Or maybe they're just better at it?

chud-minded? gee thanks! I am in interested in a good faith discussion as such, I hope that suits you to the extent that you are not moved to further insult a poster with whom you have had no interaction on ILM.

it's simple: do they seem interested in anything past 1972? I am genuinely curious if anyone who likes them more than I do has noticed. it's not a mortal sin to not be interested in anything past that vintage, but TO ME it is a flaw, since "1966-1972 is a high water mark in the recorded arts and we wish to revive it in our work" has been a default setting for power-pop acts for 50 years.

I bet their brand of 60s revivalism might've really killed in the 90s, back when songs like "The Way" by Fastball were bona fide hits with plenty of Beatles DNA in them. Or maybe not?

I'd assume they'd fare like a band like the Posies did back in the day - admiration from the press, but struggling to break through, despite making brilliant records. Though the Twigs have a stronger sense of image and delivery than the Posies did.

I haven't heard this band, and they apparently like a lot of the stuff I do (though that didn't make me like Foxygen), but I am also wondering about the high level of defensiveness in this thread - this isn't a Lemon Twigs fansite!

sorry that your feelings were hurt Veronica, but opening the discussion with something as dismissive as I saw this band two years ago…liked it just fine, my wife who likes normie rock and roll enjoyed it doesn't really suggest you're approaching this with the open mind you're now saying you do?

I'd argue that a couple of their earlier albums, esp Do Hollywood and Songs For The General Public, reference stuff post-1972, esp the weirder stuff. Like, No One Holds You feels like a gonzo Billy Joel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tO88U7ds4.

Sombody Loving You is hard to place - like it could have fit on the bonus 7" that came with Songs In The Key Of Life, or been some kind of new age pop thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP_JIFe6Wgs

Only A fool is like Yes doing power-pop, and I love how it totally doesn't really work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2iNXLgOJvQ

And what is Queen Of My School but the best song Big Star never wrote about consensual sex between an ape and a high school cheerleader? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obYEObCNPrU

I think they're a brilliantly weird pop group beneath the surface. But I also like the surface.

the idea that every act has to be pushing things forward feels like a very music-press desire. if a band's material is good enough; why does it matter what era the sound is influenced by... Electric Wizard and Sleep are not going to incorporate any breakbeats - that is fine.

thank you for your insights/examples Stevie!

I guess I do find it interesting that the Twigs go two generations back instead of the usual one. All the bands Veronica mentioned are basically defunct by now. When I think back to the 80s revivalism scene of the mid-00s, I think a lot of those bands could fall back on their audience at least being comprised of people who were really into Devo and Talking Heads back in the day. And I think the ones who did well eventually just became their peers - to use an example, some of the guys who idolized YMO growing up would wind up in bands with them when they grew up. But there's no such thing for the Twigs, I mean I did notice some older folks at their show who might've actually remembered Beatlemania, but lets face it in a decade's time very few of them will be around anymore, including probably everyone who inspired them in the first place. It did create a pretty cool moment at the show, younger people bopping around to "Bring You Down"...very few people there have experienced anything quite like that

Everything Harmony is dark and sad and about death, depression and losing your loved ones to dementia. A Dream Is All We Know is about the Lemon Twigs themselves, trying hard to make it making the music they love but being aware their dad "failed" chasing that same dream (though they're proudly protective of their dad's talents). The new one has some really fun love songs, and a really interesting political song (Gather Round). If I wanted to listen to sonically challenging, disturbing, alienating music, which I often do, I'd simply listen to other bands.

Exactly this. The further point is that the musical forms of the past are the medium through which they discover their ancestry, grieve their losses and transcend their grief. On Everything Harmony, they’re going quite a bit further back than “Shoes or whoever”, getting into Patti Page/Doris Day style pop ballads and such. It’s like, through these artifacts, they’re able to see a very detailed picture, they’re able to reconstruct the stories of other lives, and their interiority. They’re fulfilling their own experience. I think it’s a real gift, I can’t think of another artist who works that way exactly. The thing is that the ends justify the means, and I don’t know that it would work another way.

I haven't heard this band, and they apparently like a lot of the stuff I do (though that didn't make me like Foxygen), but I am also wondering about the high level of defensiveness in this thread - this isn't a Lemon Twigs fansite!

That’s fair, but “nostalgia for 50+ Mojo readers” is an accusation that much of the praise for them itt already acknowledges and preempts. It’s not just that it’s lazily dismissive, though it’s also that. Most of us have had critical stuff to say from a position of genuine engagement. (I didn’t like Foxygen either)

I also understand the cynicism, and think it’s an effective hurdle in a way (one I had to go through myself!) that they resemble a lot of kitsch/nostalgia revivalists at a glance. Because they really are quite earnest and vulnerable, so if you can get past that, you’ve already lowered your resistance enough to be moved by it more deeply. I’m not saying it’s by design or anything. But maybe cynicism needs to be a barrier to entry in their case.

the idea that every act has to be pushing things forward feels like a very music-press desire.

sure

if a band's material is good enough; why does it matter what era the sound is influenced by... Electric Wizard and Sleep are not going to incorporate any breakbeats - that is fine.

idk, this is really a whole other discussion and prob not within the scope of a thread like this, but otoh maybe it is like an elephant in the room. When I was growing up, there was a lot of future-phobia in music that seemed to be rooted in racism. Since then, we’ve been through a moment where electronics were the whole of the landscape, and I guess in the present moment, identity feels fractured and fragmented to me in a way that defies those kind of unilinear perceptions anyhow.

The fact that they are former Broadway child actors and nepos from a music business family makes their music seem particularly inauthentic to me. The defense is always "but their songs are great!"- yeah, it's a pastiche lol.

Are the Rutles songs good? sure, that's why the Beatles' publisher sued them.

saying it's only for 50 year olds who read Mojo was a little lazy of me, fine. But I know a lot of under 25 year olds who like music and have never heard anyone talking about Lemon Twigs. they seem kind of corny and much like Material Issue and Jellyfish were, their talents are sort of lost in the cringe. how are they different from the many utter slop bands that play the International Pop Overthrow fests?

calling them nepos is pretty funny, yeah their dad was in the business but he wasn't exactly a booming success, poor guy ain't even got his own Wikipedia entry.

don't think anything they did is anywhere close to as direct a copy as the Rutles, at worst what they do is maybe similar to Utopia's Deface the Music, I can spot ya that

Their dad was a legit songwriter and studio musician. Just because he wasn't popular doesn't mean they weren't offered advantages from that.

I'm not saying they copy as hard as a satire, I'm saying it's alot easier to write catchy songs when you're a tribute band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T0GKYGFk5o

Their dad was a legit songwriter and studio musician. Just because he wasn't popular doesn't mean they weren't offered advantages from that.

― encino morricone (majorairbro), Thursday, May 21, 2026 2:38 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'll take "things that don't matter" for $400, ken

it's why they keep trying to be rammed through even though the pop culture has decided against them?

can you explain to us how pop culture has decided against them? i would love to hear your reasoning.

thank you for your insights/examples Stevie!

thank you! and sorry for being a prick above, I definitely do that from time to time.

I also understand the cynicism, and think it’s an effective hurdle in a way (one I had to go through myself!) that they resemble a lot of kitsch/nostalgia revivalists at a glance. Because they really are quite earnest and vulnerable, so if you can get past that, you’ve already lowered your resistance enough to be moved by it more deeply. I’m not saying it’s by design or anything. But maybe cynicism needs to be a barrier to entry in their case.

i think this is why i'm particularly passionate about them. i dismissed them when they started out because i was really turned off by the retro thing, and also michael's haircut made me feel ill. but then, late in 2023, a friend convinced me to give everything harmony a try, and alluded to the backstory behind New To Me, which I still think is one of the most amazing songs this century. and it *pulverised* me, and sent me back to all their old stuff, and I felt like such a pud for denying myself the joy of this fantastic and multifaceted band. so now I'm a tedious proselytiser for them, and i'll own that, but i do think they're brilliant songwriters and musicians, and that what they do is unique and remarkable, and much more sophisticated than simple retro revisionism.

also, the show wednesday was full of much younger people than just those intheir 60s and above, and lots of women, too.

The fact that they are former Broadway child actors and nepos from a music business family makes their music seem particularly inauthentic to me. The defense is always "but their songs are great!"- yeah, it's a pastiche lol.

[princerollinghiseyes.gif]

I guess I do find it interesting that the Twigs go two generations back instead of the usual one.

when i interviewed them they spoke about how their parents were older parents, and that made a difference. I told them how, when my dauhghter was born, friends kept sharing that Onion story about the dad who'd raised his kid with critically correct musical opinions and now she couldn't identify with anyone at school (she's 12 now, and equally obsessed with Chappel Roan and Kleenex/Liliput). They said their parents would "sit us in front of old Ed Sullivan Show appearances by the Dave Clark Five, the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Beatles. The Beatles meant as much to us as superheroes or NFL stars to other kids. We could not relate to anybody at school."

I try not to link to my stuff too much here, but they talk about this stuff a lot in the interview, and I think they're interesting about it. https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/02/lemon-twigs-michael-brian-daddario-interview. The headline went hard on them rejecting odern technology, and the comments were full of people arguing that Garageband and Logic are much better tools that an 8-track tape recorder, but that misses that they embrace this craft precisely for the practice of it, and their joy in it. And the thing about enjoying yourself by not looking at a phone or a screen, well... ymmv but I think there's more to that than simple anti-tech luddite-ism.

Also, re: the Rutles, those songs specifically lift ideas and motids and entire hooks from Beatles songs; you can clearly figure out which Beatles track is the root, and their lyrical content is pure pastiche. That isn't the case with the Twigs' material. Hate em all you like, but if this is your argument it's clear you're not really engaging with the group themselves but rather indulging in some weird argument that doesn't really exist outside your own head.

I'll just say the Mod Lang album is so much better than this if people haven't heard it

Borrowed Time | Mod Lang https://share.google/NADljgKO0THRWPEYu

agree with that ^^

sorry ... "otm"

*norman rockwell meme* i think both albums are very good

a friend convinced me to give everything harmony a try, and alluded to the backstory behind New To Me, which I still think is one of the most amazing songs this century. and it *pulverised* me

ha, New To Me was the one that did it for me also, absolutely destyroyed me (I only heard the backstory later on)
sill my favorite song of theirs, but i rarely play it because i can’t seem to hear it without cracking up and bawling
i also took a lot of convincing from a very persistent friend who gradually wore me down over like 3 years.

well, i def think their dad being a songwriter was a huge advantage, just not in the way that “nepo” suggests.
they were practically groomed to do this from a ridiculously early age. that explains why their chops are a level or three above other bands who play stuff like this
it doesn’t explain why they’re good.

the reason they’re good imo is they turned out to be uncommonly empathetic people, so they have a perspective worth listening to.

Always thought the idea bizarre that anyone who did some acting in their youth was to be viewed with suspicion as a songwriter