With the 2014 release of Grids, the Melbourne, Australia-based indie rock quartet Teeth and Tongue, comprised of its creative mastermind and primary songwriter New Zealand-born, Melbourne, Australia-based Jess Cornelius (guitar, vocals), Marc Regueiro-McKelvie (guitar), Damian Sullivan (bass) and James Harvey (drums) received national attention for an ambient sound paired with textured and layered vocals and lyrical content that focuses on the intricacies of romantic relationships. In fact, the Melbourne-based quartet have received praise from the likes of Triple R, Rolling Stone and The Guardian — and adding to a growing national and international profile, the band has toured with the likes of international sensation and fellow Australian Courtney Barnett.
“Dianne,” the first single off the Melbourne-based quartet’s forthcoming album Give Up On Your Health reveals a band that has gone through a change in sonic direction — with the band taking up an angular, dance floor friendly New Wave/post-punk sound reminiscent of Blondie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ It’s Blitz! and Dirty Ghosts as the Australian band pairs angular guitar chords, ambient synths, a propulsive rhythm section and anthemic hook with Cornelius’ sultry vocals. Lyrically, the song describes a character that went through something traumatic when she was small, and it’s an event that not only lingers but finds ways to reverberate in every aspect of her life — and Cornelius does so with a novelist’s attention to psychological detail and rapidly changing mental states of a troubled teen/young woman.
The recently released music video features the members of the band playing and goofing off in what clearly appears to be a young woman’s bedroom and it evokes both a playfulness and a brooding darkness that’s just starting to brew.