Local rock band Tommy The Animal will release their fifth album, “Turbo Poetry,” on Nov. 22 with a party at Belly Up Aspen. Additionally, the band will perform an acoustic rendition of the tracks at Steve’s Guitars on Dec. 12.
“It’s been a while since we last played Steve’s, so that’ll be fun,” stated band member Jack Douglas. “I think it’s nice that they record all their shows, so ‘Turbo Poetry’ will be something we can share with a broader community.”
Caleb Cofsky (guitar/vocals) formed the band in 2017 with Douglas (guitar/vocals), Kyle Light (drums/other instruments) and Kyle Jensen (bass). The band blends inspiration from rock and roll classics such as The Grateful Dead, The Beatles and Neil Young, with a sound that is psychedelically whimsical for the modern age, perfectly balancing nostalgia and originality.
Listening to tracks from the upcoming album, audiences are in for a groovy trip. A recently released single, “Burn My Wings,” tells the story of a search for the meaning in life, with rich instrumentation lifting lyrics that make one feel as though they are the main character of a coming-of-age film from the 1980s.
Douglas said the album’s name came from Cofsky’s affinity for the word “turbo” and the band’s inclination toward albums with two words in the title. “We wanted a unique phrase, something that, when you put it into Spotify, would be the only thing that comes up. The word ‘poetry’ doesn’t scream to be preceded by ‘turbo,’ and I think it’s just an interesting sort of full-steam versus artistic beauty kind of theme,” Douglas stated.
“I wanted the name to be two words that normally wouldn’t go together and to be a meaning that can be interpreted differently by anyone and not have a singular meaning,” Cofsky added.
Describing the process of writing tracks for this new album, Cofsky said it was a deliberate and time-consuming process but very exciting for him and the band overall. “I had about 30 or 40 songs I had written, and I went through and picked the ones that felt like they would fit the band the best, and the ones that were the most exciting. A lot of times I’ll write in my house in the morning, like, I’ll wake up and just pick up my guitar and try to come up with two or three ideas a day, and certain ones will have more momentum than others,” he stated.
Tommy The Animal released its first album in 2017 and is proud to be based in Carbondale. They tour and play music all over the country and even graced the stage of this past Mountain Fair. Cofsky said that opportunities have opened up for them in the past year especially.
“I feel we’ve embedded ourselves into the music scene here,” he stated. “Just this past year, my phone has been blowing up with offers to play Belly Up, weddings, the bars in Carbondale and Mountain Fair. Having that small, tight-knit community in the Valley has been awesome. I feel that a unique thing about our band is that we value the place we live in. The small community aspect of it has been a rewarding grind,” Cofsky said.
“Turbo Poetry” will be available on streaming platforms Nov. 22. To purchase tickets for the Belly Up show on Nov. 22, visit bellyupaspen.com For tickets to the Dec. 12 show at Steve’s Guitars, visit www.stevesguitars.net