Tone Rodent is a sonic, psychedelic, heavy shoegaze/space rock band compared to the likes of Spacemen 3, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine and The Velvet Underground.
Tone Rodent sprung to life in the fall of 1999 with an initial concept rooted in creating layers of sound washes through manipulation and experimentation. Since then TR has moved from a soundtrack-type ambient drone to a sonic rock band.
We have performed with:
-The Black Angels
-Brian Joestown Massacre
-The Warlocks
-The Fall
-Low Flying Owls
-Crimson Sweet
-The Vibrators
-The Octopus Project
-Lab Partners .
A leader of the ever-marginalized local space-junkie genre and perhaps one of St. Louis' most underexposed bands.evokes the MC5 after an overdose of mysterious gold-speckled pills.Too melodic and rhythmic to be called noise and too comfortably abstract to be called . well . Normal.
Favorite Aspects of the St. Louis Music Scene: Readers Write In
Riverfront Times
""When rock & roll becomes self-referential, it is as inane and purposeless as the visual arts at their worst. (Note well: The garage is that part of one's home that eventually becomes a depository for broken gadgets and yesterday's mildewy bored-game sensations.) There is, however, a quite dissimilar path one may travel, one which leads through vast expanses -- strange hieroglyph bleeps and buzz-saw horizons. Red with purple flashes?
""Tone Rodent, by their press-kit admission, play ""Post-Maximalist Hard-Psych-Dreamcore"" music, a genre some of you may recognize by its alternate nom de plume, ""Space Rock"" (or, as I like to chuckle dryly to companions over a snifter of Asti, ""Soundtrack for Exploding Fudge Noir""). In truth, however, each of these descriptions captures only a fragment of Tone Rodent's overall output. When appearing as an effects-laden guitar duo, the partners produce screeching noise alongside gentle hums as the occasional crackle of feedback or the sound of a tortured cable loops on and on, providing jerky cadence to the washes of distortion. At other times, one encounters Tone Rodent as a stutteringly melodious four-, five- or six-member band flaunting very danceable rhythms in addition to the aformentioned screeches, washes and looping disconnection. Either way, the best possible condition for a live experience of the group is slightly more than slightly inebriated, eyes closed, swaying and stumbling as patterns converge and morph just behind one's eyelids.
""With the rising popularity of imports like Sigur R�s and Mogwai, as well as the eastward thrust of California Shoegaze (as typified by the Warlocks or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), I foresee a day when the sweaty guitar of anti-frontman Adam Watkins will be held aloft over screaming hordes of teenyboppers as heroin flows backstage and Christina Aguilera just can't seem to get on the guest list. When that happens, I will perch, disgruntled, in the shadows at large clubs -- dribbling rum down the front of my shirt and cursing under my breath at young girls with pierced buttocks flashing views of their genetically engineered cleavage at the band
""But until then, the ghostly bubble-drone of Tone Rodent's saturated dirges will thrill me mightily every time I see them opening for overrated national acts who merely feign interest in the sort of holographic expansionism these guys have been honing for the past several years.""
-Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Riverfront Times
We commend TONE RODENT, the band blends elements of British and American psyche, shoegaze and even bluesy rock, with no fear of trace inducing repetition. Long live the flange pedal. -StlToday.com
