Album Review: Pulling Teeth

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Pull up the album art for the Giant Peach’s Pulling Teeth and you’ve got a sketch of a muted, lived-in dorm room….a pair of glasses tossed on the bedside table, a heartily filled bookshelf tucked to the side, and a blurred out window bringing in what little light there is. It’s a fairly simple scene, only subtly revealing through its contents that a more complex story lies beneath.

Outlining the lifespan of a turbulent relationship, Pulling Teeth reminds its listeners of the pull of first love and the fact that it does eventually come to an end. The cover art’s depiction of a worn dorm room encapsulates the nostalgic and realistic themes that come with this.

“I’ve been pulling teeth to try and catch you with a smile. Just keep telling me it’s all okay.”

– “Used”, by the Giant Peach

Pulling Teeth is the premier album for the Giant Peach, a self-described “indie art rock band” based in Burlington, Vermont. This kind of music entails driving guitar lines, eloquent waves of piano, colorful accents of trumpet, and imagery-provoking lyrics. It’s like you’re hearing the acoustic soundtrack to a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, mixed in with your mom’s old jazz records, mixed in with the radio’s mid-00’s pop songs.

Although there isn’t much obvious connection to be found between MLHS and a band from a state that exists four hours away (and is most well-known for having a lot of cows), it’s nice to know that the front-man of this band is MLHS’s own Class of 2013 alum, Harrison Hsiang. The Giant Peach will be playing the Class of 2013’s Five Year Reunion this June!

In an interview with the blog Music Musings & Such, Harrison said, “I got into this all to try and make the kind of music I want to hear more of – familiar songs and stories that you’ve never heard. I realized, pretty quickly, that this is far too big an undertaking for just me – and that’s about when we formed The Giant Peach…”

Harrison heads the band, as the songwriter, lead singer, guitarist, pianist – and, if you asked him to pick up any other instrument, I’m sure he would do it. Along with Harrison, a huge part of the band is played by the keystone bassist/guitarist Max Shashoua. These two are responsible for the majority of Pulling Teeth’s production. When the Giant Peach hits the stage, they are also joined by drummer Jacob Shashoua, bassist Liam Lundal, and violinist/pianist Gloria Breck.

The album is set to be released on Saturday, April 21, and it will be accessible on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon. In addition, half of the proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood. The three songs that have already been released, called “Want”, “Over Again” and “Used”, will be joining the five others to make up exactly the album you’re going to want playing over the car speakers when you’re handed that aux cord.