Their Teeth Will Be of Lions "True Stories Are Harder To Make Up" review

     Kalamazoo indie rock seven-piece their Teeth Will Be of Lions is back and better than ever, taking their already larger-than-life sound to even greater heights than expected.
     True Stories Are Harder To Make Up-- specifically designed to be listened to on vinyl-- “forc[es] us to use our time wisely,” proclaims the album’s liner notes. And time is, indeed, a very conspicuous force on this album: with genre-spanning tempo changes from song to song (and, often, within the songs themselves), Teeth’s sonic repertoire ranges from melodic vocal parts, decorated by piano, acoustic guitar, and even Sufjan Stevens-esque banjo, into Aeolian bursts of sound, at times channeling the arena-rock intensity of Muse, Coheed and Cambria, and the Foo Fighters.
     With a risk-taking exploration of new themes and ideas alongside a wider range of tempos, genres and sounds than we ever thought possible-- and, of course, the unforgettable theatricality for which Their Teeth Will Be of Lions has become known-- True Stories are Harder to Make Up smashes expectations and firmly re-establishes their place in the local (and statewide) scene. The A-Side flows from an instrumental hard-rock intro, to the frustrated yawp at capitalist culture that is “Nickels and Dimes,” and through the epic “I Went To Minnesota Not To Be Alone (I Lost My Way Home),” pushing through every conceivable tempo and song structure, and creating a mosaic of concept-driven art rock (think an indie-rock "Bohemian Rhapsody"). The B- Side, in turn, does not disappoint: at first appearing to shift gears from the A-Side completely, the dance-floor-ready “Everyone Made It Out Alive” (an apparent homage to their 2007 debut album Everyone Made It Out Alive… Almost!) kicks it up several notches with 21st century-style disco, moving unexpectedly into the bounding rock of “Brown Sugar Body Bags” and, eventually, into the haunting last track, on which half-spoken vocals decorate a melancholy piano melody, creating a pleasingly suspenseful feel, leaving listeners simultaneously satisfied and wanting more.    
     In short, True Stories contains every ounce of energy found on Everyone Made It Out Alive... Almost!, but with none of the silliness, and the depth they exhibited on The Death... The Reincarnation...And The Unfamiliar Tales Of:, but with more urgency, showing off their ever-growing confidence and the chops they’ve earned as indie veterans of the Kalamazoo scene. Teeth takes their sound to new heights, proving themselves in the face of new expectations, and leaving listeners with only one question: where will Their Teeth Will Be of Lions go next? There’s simply no telling… and it seems that‘s exactly the point.

True Stories Are Harder To Make Up is to be released at The Strutt in Kalamazoo on April 17th, 2010.

[***Editor's note: press copy of "True Stories Are Harder to Make Up" courtesy of Glen of TTWBOL; who now has a solo project you can find here***]