Tobacco

Tobacco is, depending on your musical taste, a somewhat obscure musician, and frontman of the also somewhat obscure psychedelic alternative band Black Moth Super Rainbow. In 2008, Tobacco decided to go solo and leave his bizarre bandmates behind.

Pictured: Black Moth Super Rainbow. Not pictured: Normalcy.
Pictured: Black Moth Super Rainbow. Not pictured: Normalcy.
Fun for the whole family!
Fun for the whole family!

Just The Facts

  1. Tobacco is the self-given moniker for the BMSR frontman.
  2. The other band members also gave themselves mysterious names, because apparantly making psychedelic music under the band name Black Moth Super Rainbow didn't make them wierd enough.
  3. They are: The Seven Fields of Aphelion, d.kyler, Father Hummingbird, and Ryan Graveface.
  4. Both Tobacco and BMSR are known for their exclusive (over)use of the vocoder when their songs involve vocals.
  5. I have just gotten back from consulting with Science, which has concluded that, no, you can not overuse the vocoder.

Going Solo

In October 2008, clearly wanting his new solo project to be as widely accessible as possible, Tobacco decided to name his debut album Fucked Up Friends, no doubt anticipating the wave of awkward stares shoppers would recieve from music store employees when asked if they carried an album with such a name. Another characteristic Tobacco (whose real name is Tom Fec) carried over with him from BMSR was his fondness for oddly named song titles. Some titles on FUF included "Grease Wizard", "Hairy Candy", and the ever catchy and totally not nausea-inducing "Truck Sweat". Tobacco also had hip-hop artist Aesop Rock guest on the track "Dirt", which consisted of Tobacco's usual synthesizer sounds and lo-fi drums, coupled with Aesop rhyming about such controversial and serious subjects as pinecone avalanches, topiary bears, and Honey Bunches of Oats.

The Fecmeister himself.

The Fecmeister himself.

In May 2010, Tobacco released his second solo album, the less profane but equally bizarre Maniac Meat. His latest work consists of 16 hip-hop infused, beat-driven songs, that has been Tobacco's trademark style since his departure from BMSR. Another guest musician decided to contribute to Maniac Meat, this time with the Loser himself, Beck, showing up to lend vocals to "Fresh Hex" and the awesomely titled "Grape Aerosmith". Other noteworthy song titles include "Lick The Witch", "Nuclear Waste Aerobics", and arguably his biggest hit from the album so far, "Sweatmother".

Most Tobacco songs are relatively short, with the average song being around 2 & 1/2 minutes in length, with several not even reaching 2 minutes. Many sounds on his solo albums, including his vocoder-exclusive vocals, are usually heavily distorted and treated to sound as broken and edgy as possible. In other words, it's perfect for dinner parties or blaring over ice cream truck speakers.