The Toadies are celebrating 4/20 with the release of a new edible in collaboration with Texas High Country.
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The band’s I Come From The Watermelon—a play on their 1994 Rubberneck track, “I Come From the Water”—is a watermelon and prickly pear flavored THC gummy, which comes in an engraved Toadies collector case; a limited edition bundle also includes a Toadies T-shirt.
“When I told my team that we should create a fun collaboration with a Texas band, a unanimous ‘Can we reach out to the Toadies?’ swept through the room,” said Texas High Country founder Andrew Clarkson in a statement. “Turns out, we were all long-time fans and the idea was a no-brainer.”
Fans in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, can also enjoy a special Texas High Country 4/20 Blowout Pop-Up at Thunderbird Station on April 20.
In addition to The Toadies edibles, the band has rereleased their very first single “Dig A Hole/I Hope You Die.” Originally released in 1990 on cassette tape, the track was remixed and remastered by Chris “Frenchie” Smith and is available on vinyl for the first time, along with extensive liner notes.
The cassette was originally sold only at live shows, or directly through the band. The original recording of the dual track featured Toadies singer Vaden Todd Lewis (who wrote and produced the songs), along with guitarist Charles Mooney III, Lisa Umbager on bass, and drummer Michael Jerome Moore. The current, longtime lineup of The Toadies consists of Lewis, guitarist Clark Vogeler, who joined in 1996, and drummer Mark Reznicek, who has been in the band since 1991.
“This tape changed my life,” said Reznicek in a statement. “Oh sure, you hear people say this or that record changed their life all the time, but in this case I mean it—literally.”
Tracey Sauerwein, who briefly joined as a Toadies guitarist, originally gave the drummer the “Dig A Hole/Hope You Die” cassette and told him that the band sounded like The Pixies.
“I put the tape on, turned up the volume, and had my mind blown,” shared Reznicek. “They didn’t sound kinda like the Pixies. They sounded exactly like the Pixies, and I fucking loved it. I immediately played the tape again, then again and again, several more times. I called Tracey raving about how amazing this two-song tape by an unknown local band from [Fort] Worth really was. She just laughed and said ‘I told ya.’”
Reznicek added, “When the band started holding auditions for a new drummer, I landed the job and have been there ever since, all because I fell in love with this tape. And that’s why I can truthfully and quite literally say ‘This tape changed my life.’”
Along with their “Dig A Hole” rerelease, The Toadies are also returning to the studio this summer with producer Steve Albini to record their eighth album and follow up to the 2017 release The Lower Side of Uptown in the summer of 2023. The new album is set for release in 2024.
“There are records in each of our collections that were recorded by Steve Albini, which mean the world to us,” said Vogeler in a statement. “The sound he brought to records like The Pixies’ ‘Surfer Rosa,’ and PJ Harvey’s ‘Rid of Me,’ capture the feeling of being in a room with a band while they play—quite loudly, it would appear.”
Vogeler continued, “A personal fave, Wedding Present’s ‘Seamonsters’ saved me in a way that no other record has. The emotion of the songs just pours out of the speakers. His recordings of bands are honest; there’s not much in the way of Pro Tools fixing (he records to tape) or studio trickery (no autotune in sight!). It’s mostly just a band in a room with microphones, playing the songs, and that appeals to us at this point. We’ve always felt like we could deliver live, so why not record the band live?”
In 2022, The Toadies released the EP Damn You All to Hell, which featured four previously unreleased tracks and a cover of David Bowie’s Low track, “Sound and Vision.” That year, the band also went on tour to commemorate the overdue 25th anniversary of their debut, Rubberneck.
Check out our interview with singer Vaden Todd Lewis and the Story Behind The Toadies’ classic “Possum Kingdom,” HERE.
Photo: Matt Cooper
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