Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

What a great piece, very much of a (well) piece with that recent Nick Cave profile. I had no idea about so much of this. I was so happy to chip in to the Kickstarter, because my limited dealings with Leo (a couple of interviews, a couple of friends in common) have been very positive. He seems like a super dude, and to know he's been carrying all this baggage around ...

That's a great feature. It sucks what a tough time he and his wife have had over the last few years. I love this guy and I'm so glad he's back.

Love Ted -- I've seen him play 4 or 5 times. I did get burned out on him after Shake the Sheets and never bothered with The Brutalist Bricks (which, after reading that piece, makes me regret it). Intrigued to check out the new album.

New one is really good so far! If there's any downside it's that the mix is weirdly muddy and I also really wish he had a bunch of extra money to pay some big name producer, like Justin Meldal-Johnsen, to polish up these great tunes and get him on the radio and/or radio equivalent.

The video for the first single from the new album is filling me with a ridiculous amount of joy right now.

https://youtu.be/ieNMITLhtVE

saw them last night (and as a bonus ran into Ted while he was buying lunch at the logan's circle WF earlier in the day, impromptu). I really like the saxophone addition! It's very Bruce. I was really glad to see his stage banter is as dry and hilarious as ever.

I find the album a bit of a slog unfortunately

Saw them when they stopped in Boston last week -- they played for a solid 2 and half hours. The highlight was definitely when Ted did a mini-set of solo stuff (but that might just have been because the sound person was so bad that all I could hear during the full band numbers was the bass and the floor tom). And I have to agree that his stage banter still slays.

The new album has really been growing on me. Not quite Hearts of Oak level greatness, but definitely the equal of Shake the Sheets or Brutalist Bricks.

Yeah, I've been enjoying the new album a lot too. William Weld In The 21st Century is just devastating.

Thinking of seeing him next month for the first time.