Thomas Function are coming to New York City today!  They have three shows lined up too (hitting three of the five boros!):

• Tonight- Wednesday September 30th! PopJew Presents:
  • Thomas Function, Yussuf Jerusalem, Indian Casino & Jail Hippies
    • At the Silent Barn
• Thursday October 1st
  • Thomas Function and Yussuf Jerusalem
    • at The Studio at Webster Hall
      
• Friday October 2nd
  • Thomas Function, Yussuf Jerusalem, Nice Face, and Georgiana Starlington
    • at Bruar Falls!
• all other tour dates can be found here.
  

I recently got copies of both Celebration, and their forth coming record In the Valley of Sickness.  Both records are great in very different ways… Celebration showing a slightly faster more punk rock side of the band, and In the Valley of Sickness experiments with song writing showing maturity and growth.  In the Valley of Sickness seems to be a natural progression for Thomas Function, and I’ve been spinning the LP every chance I get.

Celebration came out on Alive Records (who does super fast mail order…my record was at my house with in the week), and has the song that has been in my head for the past two weeks… even though I don’t know all the words I still try to sing it:

[mp3] Thomas Function- “Relentless Machine”

and while I’m at it…here is another great track from this album:

[mp3] Thomas Function- “A Long Walk”

Buy Celebration from Alive Records here.

I discover something new about In the Valley of Sickness with each listen, and it slowly bring a little bit of blues, country and folk into the foreground while the band remains deeply routed in energetic pop.  I’m really hoping to hear “ADP Blues,” the opening track from the new record live…the record is almost worth it for that song alone.  In my last post (part of my This Week In Mail Order series) I put up two tracks from the new record (mistakenly thinking they were from Celebration)…which I will re-post here for the sake of completeness.  These are the two songs that got me hooked on the TFunk.

[mp3] Thomas Function- “Belly of the Beast”

[mp3] Thomas Function- “Picking Scabs”

Buy In the Valley of Sickness from Fat Possum on CD here, or on LP here. It will be released on October 13th (I think they are shipping mail order early).

Thomas Function really bring a smile to my face both musically and lyrically (really some of their lyrics are hilarious!).   These guys have something, and I’m not sure what it is…but I plan to find out on Friday at Bruar Falls…If you can I highly recommend making it out to one of these shows…it will be fun.

Links:

• more on Thomas Function here.
• buy other Thomas Function releases here.
• more This Week In Mail Order here.

Yesterday was a day of music discovery for me in many ways.  I’ve been in a funk, but I heard a whole bunch of new stuff, and surprisingly not too much of it had fuzzy vocals!  Maybe that fad is dying (don’t get me wrong some of it is really good, but I’m ready for music to move on).  While I’m going to be posting about several things that I have been listening to over the past 24 hours I think the band that has impressed me the most has been Thomas Function.

I guess there are two people I have to thank for this discovery, and the first is PopJew and the second is PopTarts (the first for the initial recommendation and the latter for posting some tracks!)

Thomas Function are from Alabama, and make really fun infectious pop music, almost punk at times, with hints of all your favorite garage/pysch/blues, and nasally twangy vocals tie it all together.  On top of totally fun catchy songs their lyrics are the icing on the cake…how can you argue with a song that starts “are you gonna buy a record? or what?” (check out “Picking Scabs below).

Thomas Function formed in 2007 have released six singles, a full length called Celebration on Alive Records, and have just been signed to Fat Possum who will release their second full length In the Valley of Sickness on October 13th.  That is three busy years.

Out of the 30 tracks that live on my ipod right now(yep you read that right…only 30… don’t ask) the two by Thomas Function have gotten by far the most play time.  I wanted to hear more so I headed over to the Free Music Archive.  Sure enough Thomas Function recorded a live set on January 27, 2009 for The Evan Funk Davies show on WFMU.  The set clocks in at 23.5 minutes and is a totally free legal download!

I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Celebration, and very soon In the Valley of Sickness as well.

Listen to Thomas Function:

[mp3] Thomas Function- “Belly of the Beast”

[mp3] Thomas Function- “Picking Scabs”

[album download/stream] Thomas Function- Live on WFMU (via  FMA!)

Both mp3s above are from Neither of the songs above are from Celebration, but you can still buy it from Alive Records here or  buy it at insound! (I thought they were, but I just got the record in the mail, and they are not…maybe they are on In the Valley of Sickness…and if so that will be available next month).

Thomas Function also have a huge tour lined up:

• 9/21 Huntsville, AL @ Voodoo Lounge
• 9/22  Florence, AL @ Black Owl Trading Co.
• 9/23  Huntsville, AL @ Whiskey’s
• 9/24  Memphis, TN @ Goner Fest
• 9/25  Memphis, TN @ Goner Fest
• 9/26  Atlanta, GA @ 529
• 9/27  Durham, NC @ 2702 Lawndale
• 9/28  Baltimore, MD @ Talking Head Club
• 9/29  Philadelphia, PA @ Jr’s
• 9/30  Ridgewood, Queens, NY @ Silent Barn
• 10/1  New York, NY @ Webster Studio
• 10/2  Brooklyn, NY @ Bruar Falls
• 10/3  Pittsburgh, PA @ Garfield Artworks
• 10/4  Columbus, OH @ Summit
• 10/5  Detroit, MI @ Lager House
• 10/6  Fort Wayne, IN @ Brass Rail
• 10/8 Milwaukee, WI @ Club Garibaldi
• 10/10  Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge
• 10/11  Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
• 10/12  Provo, UT @ House Show TBA
• 10/14  Seattle, WA @ Funhouse
• 10/17  Portland, OR @ Vice Scion Garage Festival
• 10/19  Oakland, CA @ Stork Club
• 10/20  San Francisco @ Hemlock Tavern
• 10/21  Sacramento, CA @ Blue Lamp
• 10/23  Los Angeles, CA @ 5 Star Bar
• 10/25  San Diego, CA @ Pink Elephant
• 10/26  Phoenix, AZ @ Modified
• 10/29  Lubbock, TX @ Bash Riprocks
• 10/30  Dallas, TX @ Lounge on Elm Street
• 11/2 Houston, TX @ Mangos
• 11/3  New Orleans, LA @ Saturn Bar
• 11/4  Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box