It would be an understatement to say that I’m overjoyed that one of my fave
bands from the college rock era – the quirky, intelligent, indefatigable
Too Much Joy – is returning in March with their first album in nearly a
quarter-century. From indie rock records like 1987’s Green Eggs and Crack and
the following year’s Son of Sam I Am (which includes the mirthful, insightful,
classic tune “Clowns”) through their too-brief major label years, which
yielded underachieving and overlooked albums like 1991’s Cereal Killers,
1992’s Mutiny, and the criminally-ignored …finally (1996), Too Much Joy never
failed to deliver an entertaining musical experience. My long-lost interview
with TMJ frontman Tim Quirk remains one of my favorite conversations with an
artist but, since it was never published, I have no idea what we talked
about…
Currently comprised of original band members Tim Quirk
(vocals), Jay Blumenfield (guitar, vocals), Sandy Smallens (bass, vocals) and
Tommy Vinton (drums) along with long-time member William Wittman (guitar,
keyboards, vocals), Too Much Joy comes roaring back on March 19th, 2021 with
Mistakes Were Made, and the band has released its first single from the album
with an accompanying video. Needless to say, it sounds like they never left,
with “Uncle Watson Wants To Think” displaying the same sort of bruised,
wistful lyrics as their best songs along with an edgy pop-punk-drenched rock
‘n’ roll soundtrack…think of Weezer, but smarter and with balls. Of the song,
the band writes that it “began life when critic/professor Gina Arnold shared a
list of unused Raymond Chandler titles on Facebook and suggested her friends
kill some pandemic lockdown time by writing stories to match.”
“Tim was struck by the title ‘Uncle Watson Wants to Think’, and
asked if he could contribute a lyric, instead. He wrote the words quickly,
while swimming laps in a swimming pool near his house: ‘I just saw Uncle
Watson collapsed on a couch, and a little kid trying to sneak past him without
disturbing the guy. The whole thing pretty much sprang to life fully formed,
which is rare, for me. I could tell the guy was kind of a jerk, but I never
like it when songs spend all their energy ridiculing someone else, so I tried
to figure out what made him so sad and mean. Turns out Uncle Watson probably
had his own Uncle Watson. Jay, Bill and Sandy worked up an appropriately
melancholy arrangement for the tune, then Bill asked his pal Joan Osborrne to
contribute some lady vocals to the mix, as we really needed to hear from the
mother who brought this man into the house.’”
The video features
singer/songwriter Joan Osborne on guest vocals and was directed and edited by
Keegan Denery of 1596 Films. Says the band, “Jay had the idea for the video,
which was assembled by young genius Keegan Denery after experimenting for
several hundred hours with dozens of different images suggested by the band.
Some looked uncannily real when they mouthed the song’s words, others were
frightening failures. After a lot of trial and error, Keegan combined all the
ones that worked into a seamless whole. Many of the characters are easter eggs
for diehard Too Much Joy fans, based on old lyrics or PR mishaps.”
In
the liner notes to the new album, the band writes “we weren’t really planning
on making another record; this album only exists because 2020 sucked so
goddamn much. Our humble hope is that, since it now exists, it can make
whatever year you’re listening to it suck a little bit less.” Check out the
video below and then get on over to Bandcamp to pre-order the brand-spankin’
new Too Much Joy album Mistakes Were Made. Tell ‘em that the Rev sent ya!
Buy the new CD: Too Much Joy’s Mistakes Were Made
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| Too Much Joy, circa 2021 |
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