Review Summary: Tonk is a rambling, twang-infused, criminally unknown pearl of a country band worthy of your attention
There are great ways to discover new music - and there are not so great ways. I will always remember the thrill I had browsing through the thousands of tracks on the hard disk that I had borrowed from my neighbor girl ten years my senior, staying up beyond my bed time to listen to another album with my headphones on so as not to be caught by my parents. And then, suddenly, these days of magic were over. Enter Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music. No more borrowing of hard disks. No more mix tapes on CD-Rs. Streaming services tell me what to listen.
There's no story behind it at all anymore. In fact, I find it slightly humiliating to have my Apple Music telling me 'hey, you might like this,' - and then in fact digging it completely. Am I that predictable? And here's the thing: the more music I get pushed in my direction that exactly honks my horn, the less it does to me emotionally, the easier I forget about it all. Why bother sticking with this particular album when there is a truck load of similar stuff waiting for you?
It was, therefore, a small miracle that Apple Music finally handed me something that really stuck. And this 'something' is Tonk's wonderful record 'Songs to Glorify the Peasant and his Tractor'. Somehow, this one record has been able to bob up to the surface of the sea of content and find its way to my heart. So, this review is to make up for the lack of any great narrative about how I discovered this wildly unknown band; an attempt to give meaning to things in a world of unlimited content. To go short: Tonk is great, give this record a chance.
Based in Vancouver, Tonk has been releasing country music since 2019. It is the kind of band that has to make do with fifty views per track on their Youtube channel, yet seems to be doing a thing that is just ripe for a cult-following - a bit like
Westelaken, another Sputnik-loved but otherwise completely unknown pearl of a band. On this album, Tonk sounds like a nicer version of
The Velvet Underground during their 'Loaded' period. It is as if the Underground's country-leaning tracks have been taken up and rewritten by a bunch of do-good hillbillies in their mid-thirties, retaining a softer version of the irony that so pervaded Loaded. The silly cover art featuring a kitsch hand-drawn horse floating in mid-air breathes Tonk's gentle sense of humor, as does the album's pompous title, as do the titles of the separate tracks (with "Horse Knowledge" as the clearest clue that Tonk cannot just like that be placed in the legacy of a Hank Williams). This slight irony gives Tonk the freedom to rework country-tropes in their own way, while the self-awareness never gets as caustic as during some moments on the Underground's last record.
'Songs to Glorify the Peasant and his Tractor' opens with one of my favorite tracks, "Silt": an up-tempo country/rock song that could have been written by
Pavement had they lowered their we-don't-give-a-sh*t attitude for a moment. The chorus even invited my wife to mumble along - who, unwillingly, has been exposed to this album multiple times already when we were doing the dishes. "A Little Heartache" is slightly more introspective, guitars whining, steel guitar sliding and weaving tales of loss, the singer lamenting that 'little heartbreak you call love.' Very country. The album continues to slow down on a blue note with "Texas Hold Me", a poignant song reminiscent of the nineties, adorned with semi-falsetto vocals and guitars that occasionally stray from perfect pitch. Like a lone swallow in the open sky, the singing melody rises and swoops in long sustained notes to almost touch those heart strings, expect you don't really know how ironic all this is meant to be. In "Condo", my second favorite track and definitely the most danceable, the record picks up speed again with a blue grassy rock track galloping around like a horse over the prairies. "Blue Buckaroo"'s punchy, sad chords incite that typical country melancholy that makes you want to drown your sorrows with a glass of cheap bear, while "Emmanuel" would rather have one tap that same glass of beer on the counter, drunken, singing along. "Horse Knowledge" is a the most experimental track with unexpected changes in the chord structure and an occasional stray organ accompanying the guitars. Finally, "Rifle and a Steed" is a bluesy prelude that would do well in a cover by Bonnie Prince Billy to the final track "Baby", which successfully closes the album with a guitar happily doodling over an uplifting strumming chord progression.
It is hard to get across what is so great about this album. It is not terribly original in its approach to country. Yet, paradoxically, neither is there anything like it. The record is a bit unpolished, and here and there it drags, but it is as if the personalities of the band members come pouring through those cracks in the surface. One can just tell that it would be great to get a beer with Tonk, kind folk without pretensions, who just come across straight away like they might become your friends. Every second of this record attests of the fun Tonk has had making it. It does not overstay its welcome, it provides something for everyone, and you can even play it for your wife when you are doing the dishes.
I do not have a great story to tell of how I found this band. No drunken nights in country clubs wallowing Tonk songs arm-in-arm with a bunch of cowboys. Not even a hard disk borrowed of a friend. My streaming service did all that work for me. Still, I am happy to attest that what stands out in the limitless flows of music is two things. Character and fun. And Tonk has plenty to give of both.
