To Bed To Battle out March 23rd on Suburban Home Records
Matt Agrella – vocals, guitar, trombone, trumpet
Joshua Mikel – drums
Dave Pinkham – keys, guitar, vocals
Ryan Slate – guitar, pedal steel, vocals
Ryan Smith – bass
Look Mexico is a band already on the brink of something big with their sophomore album To Bed To Battle, although they have only three EPs and one full-length under their collective belt. This Austin-by-way-of-Tallahassee band has been honing their intricate, interwoven melodies for the past six years; on this album they master their knack for writing taut, polished songs with a biting edge. That talent, hinted at on their previous releases, is now balanced with ease on that true line between rock and pop and moving straight into two-to-five minute audio heaven.
To Bed To Battle deals with struggle: the current, universally escalating sense of stress and urgency, life’s daily trials, and personal problems. At the same time, there’s an unyielding sense of determination in the face of adversity – a willingness to press on – that runs through the album, and it’s a refreshingly cathartic listen from start to finish. As frontman Matt Agrella says, articulating an arguably ubiquitous present-day sentiment, “We’re broke and beaten down, but still hopeful.”
Produced by Phil Martin (who also helped produce the Gasp Asp EP) and the band, To Bed To Battle was written and recorded May through August 2009 in the converted basement of a local Tallahassee pizza shop that Look Mexico deemed ‘The Magic Cave.’ With a dedicated space and ample time, the band experimented and expanded their sound on the new album while retaining the sometimes-unorthodox arrangements that characterize their work. The songs grew organically as the band broke any past molds. A new and widened range of instrumentation was used, including electric piano, organ, pedal steel, and bells. Wanting to add strings and horns to some songs, the decidedly creative and self-sufficient band (drummer Joshua Mikel also handles all the artwork for their releases and conceptualizes their videos) looked within to Agrella to write and arrange those additional parts. Agrella’s ascendant vocals – stronger and more confident than ever – are now complemented by Pinkham and Slate’s soaring harmonies. The result is a set of ten focused, cohesive, yet musically and stylistically diverse songs from a discernibly matured band.
A ringing organ chord and Ryan Smith and Mikel’s pulsing, propulsive rhythm section launch album opener and searing anthem “You Stay. I Go. No Following.” (on which Frank Turner contributed vocals), then chiming guitars crash in. The band’s mathy side and Slate and Agrella’s intertwining guitar work shine through on the edgy, driving “No Wonder I’m Still Awake” and the dreamy “Time For You To Go Do Your Own Thing,” while Agrella’s clever lyrics are showcased within tinges of pedal steel Americana and strings in “Take It Upstairs, Einstein.” Steady and patient builds to explosion in the contemplative “Until The Lights Burn Out?” and the penitent, unwaveringly cadent “They Only Take The Backroads,” while the band cuts loose on the barreling “I Live My Life A Quarter Mile At A Time” and rollicking “They Offered Me A Deal (I Said No, Naturally).”
Agrella began writing songs for Look Mexico with former guitarist Dave Bumsted after meeting through mutual friend Dave Pinkham (who eventually joined the band in 2008) at a Sea and Cake show on the Florida State University campus. In early 2004 they joined up with drummer Mikel and played their first show later that year, opening for Karate. They released their first EP, So Byzantine, in 2005 and began playing religiously around their home state of Florida. The Crucial EP followed in 2006, and Ryan Slate replaced Bumsted before Look Mexico recorded their debut full-length This Is Animal Music, released by Lujo Records in 2007. The band’s current line-up of Agrella, Mikel, Slate, Smith, and Pinkham came together around the Gasp Asp EP in 2008. The band has toured just about non-stop, spending at least half of each of the past five years on the road, sharing stages with artists that include The Honorary Title, Frank Turner, Good Old War, Fake Problems, and Bridge and Tunnel.
http://www.myspace.com/lookmexico
