Rock band Horrors of Toledo creates some music buzz
09:34 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 17, 2008
By VANESSA FRANKO
The Press-Enterprise
Who: Sashelle Hedrick, bass; Glynn Montemayor, drums; Ryley Northrup, guitar and vocals
From: Norco, Fountain Valley
Formed: 2007
Special to The Press-Enterprise
Indie rock band Horrors of Toledo has played at DiPiazza's in Long Beach. One of the band's members, singer/guitarist Ryley Northrup, is from Norco.
Releases: The band is finishing up its debut EP.
Sounds like: If Horrors of Toledo lived in Brooklyn, the indie rock band with a touch of punk would be all the rage among the hipster set.
The band has a Pixies bent with flourishes of Murder By Death and Interpol and an amped-up touch of Psychedelic Furs, which is never a bad thing. Check out "Puppeteer" and "Empty Eyes."
Sample the music: www.myspace.com/horrorsoftoledo
Don't be fooled by the name. Horrors of Toledo didn't see something really, really awful in Ohio. Singer/guitarist Ryley Northrup is from Norco and bassist Sashelle Hedrick and Glynn Montemayor live in Fountain Valley, where the band is based. They've never even been to Toledo.
"I got a lot of my inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe," Northrup said. "A lot of the songs are character-based."
The band's name comes from Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum."
The group started just over a year ago when some of the members met while playing an acoustic show.
Horrors of Toledo is already generating some buzz, opening for punk legend Mike Watt's 50th birthday party and recently playing the Glass House with The Deadly Syndrome.
"It was pretty cool. I always wanted to play there," Northrup said. "The sound is great."
When they're not doing Horrors of Toledo, Northrup and Hedrick also play in another full-time band called the Family Shocks.
The band is working on an EP, due out late this summer or early fall on Vamped Records.