#NewMusic: The Lemon Twigs

The Lemon Twigs, brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, make lush pop tunes that owe a lot to The Beatles and The Beach Boys and Bowie with a big nod to Todd Rundgren. The brothers, former child actors from Long Island, have a sound that is retro, while sounding fresh, all the while looking like Brady Bunch brothers as seen through the eye of John Waters.

The D’Addario brothers are only in their late teens, but they’re astonishingly good at what they do. The pair play all the instruments on their debut album, Do Hollywood (two friends join them when they play live). Brian plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, horns and strings. Michael is skilled on guitar, bass, keys, drums, or as he calls them: “The basic band instruments”. The brothers are crazy for intricate, rich harmonies, soaring melodies and they are big on overdub.

They share songwriting duties, but separately. Do Hollywood is sequenced so that their songs alternate, one after another.

Michael D’Addario:

“It’s because we have big egos…or we did have bigger egos at the time. We didn’t want each other to sing on the other’s songs. It was like we wanted to be in two different bands. But I like his songs as much as my own songs, so we felt it would be a better group if it was two songwriters instead of one.”

I dig their eccentric sense of style. Why wouldn’t I? They look like the stepped out of one of my favorite years, 1972.

Boy George and Sir Elton John are among their fans. Do Hollywood is a glorious curiosity, and an impressive debut.

The Lemon Twigs will be playing gigs at The South By Southwest Festival (SXSW) next week, so catch them if you are in Austin, Texas!

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