When we last left David Cohn (Serengeti) and Yoni Wolf, it was 2011—the year of the Rabbit, the year of Occupy Wall Street, and their first collaborative album, Serengeti’s Family & Friends. Somewhere amidst Charlie Sheen’s meltdown and Oprah’s last episode, the duo dropped one of the most simultaneously bleak and hilarious song cycles ever conceived, replete with tales of bigamy, reinventions of self, addiction, and disgraced UFC fighters. Woe leavened by whimsy.
 
A half-decade later, Serengeti and Wolf (principal songsmith of the band WHY?), have returned with Testarossa. Due in May 2016 on Joyful Noise Recordings, it soundtracks a script the pair penned while on tour together. Every song conceptualizes the saga of star-crossed lovers, Maddy and Davy.
 
After Davy got Maddy pregnant, he proposed. The ceremony was a lovely, traditional affair. Shortly thereafter, Davy’s band took off and he rode the wave of garage rock revival. But alas, soon their music went out of vogue, and the tastemakers left them for dead. No blog would touch them with a ten-word post, but Davy never gave up. Music was the only life he knew, the only way he could pay the bills and process the pain.
 
So he took any gig he could get, canvassing the road, hoping to ignite his career at sparsely attended shows from Hoboken to Hamburg, Germany. Times were tough. Davy barely had any income to send home to Maddy and their now two children. With her husband on the road, she was forced to take a job as a cocktail waitress. Slightly debased, and getting hit on all the time, she eventually took solace in the arms of Davy’s old high school best friend/ex-bandmate.
 
Testarossa captures this disarray and emotional turbulence, cold Decembers and dark memories. On opening song, “Umar Rashid,” Serengeti (as Davy) tells the listeners that he’s as troubled as can be. “Allegheny” finds him fretting over melancholic pianos, nostalgically assuaging his own guilt, mentioning the model Testarossa he brought home for his children. Yoni croons, “I told you once, I told you twice, sweetie pie, I’m cold as ice… I have to catch this flight.”
The sentiment distills the slow decay of the album. It’s a high-concept examination of lives crumbling. The despair of a lovable underdog who chased his dreams so relentlessly that he lost those he loved the most. He misses his kids, but still lives a debauched life away.
 
As always, there’s the undercurrent of sadness and regrets, sin and repentance, the juxtaposition of bleak reality, the surreal, and dark humor. It’s a dirty, weird and brilliant album that becomes more stark and visceral with every listen. This is love and willful destruction sharing a beer and a shot—the soundtrack to wrong decisions and crooked twists of fate. Yoni & Geti. Testarossa.

Mike Savino is not your grandaddy’s banjo player, and Tall Tall Trees is definitely not your average indie-folk outfit from NYC. Savino has released two records on his own start-up label Good Neighbor Records, Tall Tall Trees (2009), and moment (2012), and has toured extensively, mystifying audiences with his innovative banjo technique. Whether performing with a full band or solo, Savino runs his instrument, dubbed by fans as the “space banjo” or “banjotron”, through a slab of effects and loopers, bowing, drumming, and strumming out multi-textured arrangements on the fly to support his lyrically driven songs. Most recently, Tall Tall Trees has been touring the US and Canada collaborating with beatboxing violinist, and of Montreal alum, Kishi Bashi. Savino is currently working on a third record which he is expecting to release in 2014.
 
“Bearded man sings songs, violates banjo” – CMJ
 
Moment, the band’s sophomore album, was recorded with a full band including Mathias Kunzli (drums, percussion), Kyle Sanna (guitar, keyboards), Benjamin Campbell (bass), and Dave Gilbert (guitar) and was made possible by a highly successful Kickstarter campaign. The album has been called “an LP of majestic sonic qualities” by Groopease and showcases their evolution from a quirky bluegrass-leaning side project into a fully formed indie-rock band. Recorded by Matthew Cullen (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne) at Dreamland Studios (Fleet Foxes, Delta Spirit) outside of Woodstock, NY, and mixed by Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog, Man Man), moment finds the band crafting a rich textured sound to support the more complex themes dealt with in this set of nine songs. Inspired by a group camping trip into the Alaskan wilderness, moment tells the story of a man yearning for escape and connection with nature. Listen Before You Buy called it a “beautiful and compelling album”, drawing references to Wilco and Brian Eno.
 
Tall Tall Trees’ self-titled debut was released in 2009. Jezebel Music dubbed it “a perfect storm of catchy songwriting, spot on performances, and crisp, inventive production.” The record became a mainstay on college radio charts for several months despite the band’s lack of promotional funding. According to College Music Journal , “it’s impossible not to smile at their pop-driven folk songs” earning the band official showcases at the CMJ Music Marathon three years in a row.
 
Songs like “Heart Says Go” and “Bubble Gum” have found their way onto television shows like Teen Mom, American Pickers, and Two and a Half Men and have earned the band a loyal cult following for their eclectic brand on indie folk-rock.
 
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photo credit: Austin Warnock