Torche interview and tour dates

Torche

If you haven't read my interview with Torche's Steve Brooks in this week's issue of Phoenix New Times, check it out here. This was a really great interview and I ended up with a lot of leftover quotes that I didn't have room for in the print feature, so I figured I'd share them here at Tempe Carnivore. (Full disclosure: I also paid my roommate to transcribe the interview for me because I'm a slow-ass typist, so I figured I might as well get my money's worth. Haha.) So here's Steve Brooks discussing SB 1070, Torche's recent tour with Coheed & Cambria, putting together the Floor boxed set, and his plans for the future. Consider this the journalistic equivalent of bonus tracks...

Torche - Songs for Singles (Album Review)

Torche - Songs for Singles
Release date: September 21, 2010 (Hydra Head Records)

When the biggest complaint you can come up with about a particular album is that it's over way too quickly, that's usually a sign that it's a really good fucking album. Such is the case with Songs for Singles, the latest release from Florida "doom pop" trio Torche. It's the band's first release (outside of one song on a 2009 split single with Boris) without founding guitarist Juan Montoya, but the band hasn't lost any of their signature heft.

At eight songs and barely more than 20 minutes, this EP is a maddeningly brief followup to Torche's exceptional 2008 full-length Meanderthal, which itself was barely more than 35 minutes long. Despite its brevity, however, Songs still offers memorable moments aplenty. It's very much in the same vein as Meanderthal, featuring short, fuzzy bursts of metallic pop rock. Anyone hoping for a return to the sludgier sound of the band's earlier work should probably move on, or just stick to the recent eight-disc Floor box set.