#EDAS Album Review: Way Yes, Tog Pebbles

by Matt (@bones_jones)

Self Released: May 7, 2013

Artist-Fair Shopping: Digital / CD

Style: Synth & Surdo,
Ituri Dreamscapes, Muppet Voices,
Every Genre Ever Mushed Together

Audience: World Music Lovers,
Sensitive Bros, Vampire Weekenders,

Future Dead People of America 

Better Tracks: Colerain, Holy Drop,
Get Healed, Don't Give Up,
Macondo

If you are a frequent reader of this website, you know how much this band means to me. Way Yes is a group of legitimately nice dudes from my college stomping grounds, delving deep into uncharted types of world fusion. Their first full-length offering, Tog Pebbles, is a psychedelic stew slowly cooked in the heartland of Columbus Ohio, and it is ready to nourish the masses.

Make Your Own Way Yes Meme 

These guys had me hooked from the second I heard their breakout EP, Walkability and the attraction has only intensified with Tog. This album seems to explore the distinct space between actively participating in and wistfully remembering one's childhood. It even goes as far to tell you what happens afterwards. SPOILER ALERT: It's either an adulthood filled with complex emotions or death. I suppose the goal is to chase the former with the latter but you might as well use your time to live and love while you can.

The brainchild of Best Buddies Glenn Davis and Travis Hall, Way Yes picks up where Paul Simon left off at his most adventurous. A sophisticated work of art that dabs tropical hues over dark existential undertones, then melts the whole thing down and pours it all over your body.

Hall and Oates Davis have worked together for what seems like lifetimes, and they have fused all prior incarnations of themselves into Way Yes. This epic bromance provides most of the singing and songwriting as well as the dueling guitars and multi-layered synthscapes that structure their unique sound. The rest of the band’s identity comes from their double-edged drumming attack of Max Lewis and Tim Horak. A veritable planet of percussion that consists of bongos, darbukas, junior congas, timbales, crash, splash, high-hat and ride cymbals, both a tamborim and a tambourine, a jam block, a mounted drum stick, shakers, agogo bells, darbukas, two cow bells and a surdo. It can’t be easy to lug all that crap across the country in your mom’s minivan, so if they come to your town, grab all your loved ones and see this amazing band live.

Way Yes @ Glasslands 7/20/2012

Almost a year after their mind blowing NYC debut, Way Yes returns for their somewhat annual double dip. Catch them this Friday July 12th at 8:30 PM for an amazing show at Glasslands, headlined by The Echo Friendly, then follow them to a free Manhattan Show at 7:00 at Pianos the following day. Get your tickets for Friday's Brooklyn shindig here and get to Pianos early enough and its free. I'm clearing my schedule so I can go to both. It may be a full weekend, but I'll be the one in the back, standing there like a proud (and likely drunken) father watching his kids make all his vicarious musical dreams come true.

Verdict: Feel free to sell all of your belongings and follow these psychedelic sages as they unlock the secrets of the universe. You'll be hearing from these fine fellows again come Best Of 2013 time. 

Get The Album Here