Tyro Marks welcomes to the band, new guitarist, Tony De Piano…we have one word for him: amazing. Check him out here: http://tonydepiano.com/
First show of the winter (and Tony’s debut) in two weeks–November 9th (see “shows”)! Hope to see y’all!
Like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jethro Tull, Tyro Marks have a name that sounds like the name of a solo artist when it’s actually the name of a group. There is no individual named Tyro Marks who performs onIowa. Tyro Marks, rather, is a Brooklyn-based duo consisting of singer/songwriter/guitarist Steven Cohen (formerly of a band called Skidmore Fountain) and singer Laura Torma. Cohen is the head honcho; he founded Tyro Marks and sings lead on this album, while Torma provides backing vocal harmonies. Torma’s role is mainly a supporting role on Iowa, which is not to say that she isn’t an important part of Tyro Marks’ attractive sound. Cohen is obviously going for a male/female vocal aesthetic, which Torma helps him achieve. Torma’s vocal harmonies have a pleasingly ethereal quality, and Cohen did the right thing when he hired her to be the other half of Tyro Marks back in 2007. No one will mistake the acoustic-oriented Iowa, which is the duo’s debut album, for party music or fun and frivolous escapism. Tyro Marks favor a hushed, gently introspective folk-rock/adult alternative approach, and melancholia is a major part of this 2010 release. Iowa gets off to a maudlin start with the opener “Nothing Seems to Last Around Here” and ends on an equally melancholy note with “Spinning Around.” In between, Cohen sounds world-weary more often than not, singing about disillusionment, sadness and heartbreak quite convincingly. His vocals are understated and restrained, but that doesn’t prevent him from getting his points across emotionally. And if “Running Away,” “100 Lifetimes Away,” and “Write Myself a Letter” don’t convince listeners that Cohen has a world-weary outlook, “Hotel Café” surely will. On “Hotel Café,” Cohen sings about how much of a struggle life in pricy Brooklyn can be and goes on to sing about how life in Los Angeles isn’t any easier, with the conclusion being that wherever one turns or looks, life is full of disappointments. As gloomy as Iowa is much of the time, it also has its hopeful moments. On “In Your Arms” and “Floating Down the River,” Cohen manages to find some moments of happiness and contentment despite being surrounded by an ocean of pain and sorrow. Iowa, on the whole, is a very dark and brooding album, but occasionally, some rays of sunlight find their way through all the dark clouds that Cohen sings and writes about. So, why would a Brooklyn-based duo have an album titled Iowa? It has to do with Cohen’s love of long road trips across the United States. Cohen starts to sound less melancholy when he sings about the open highway, which is rather Springsteen-ish of him. Bruce has a history of equating long drives with liberation, and Cohen’s writing sometimes employs similar imagery on Iowa. Musically, Tyro Marks and Springsteen are quite different. In contrast to Tyro Marks’ pastoral, airy, flowing sound, The Boss’ roots rock/Americana is tougher, edgier, and grittier than anything one will find on Iowa. The Springsteen comparison is a lyrical one rather than a musical one, and lyrically, there is definitely a parallel between the way both The Boss and Cohen look for happiness driving along America’s highways.
