Cheekface
A guitarist, drummer, and bassist performing on a small stage
Cheekface (left to right: Katz, Edwards, Tannen) performing in 2021
Background information
OriginLos Angeles, California, U.S.
GenresIndie rock
Years active2017–present
LabelsNew Professor Music
Members
  • Greg Katz
  • Amanda Tannen
  • Mark Edwards

Cheekface is an American indie rock band based in Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2017, the group consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Greg Katz, bassist and backing vocalist Amanda Tannen, and drummer and backing vocalist Mark Edwards.[1][2] To date Cheekface has released four studio albums, two EPs, and one live album – all on Katz's own independent label, New Professor Music.

The group's songs, characterized by Katz's talk-singing, are typically short and lyrics-driven with a dry sense of humor, and tend to share a thematic interest in anxiety and sociopolitical unease. Cheekface fashions itself as "America's Local Band", in reference to obscure music projects that are locally beloved but do not reach listeners outside of their music scenes.[3] In addition to releasing their music on Katz's label, their album artwork is made by Tannen.[3] Cheekface's fans are known to refer to themselves as Cheek Freaks, analogous to Deadheads.[3]

History

After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, during the Great Recession, Katz worked in artists and repertoire for record labels.[3] Katz, who had played bass in the band LA Font, lost his job in 2011 and thereafter began his own label, New Professor Music.[3] Tannen, meanwhile, had trained in classical cello in her youth and had played bass with the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Stellastarr in the 2000s.[3] After the band's dissolution, Tannen worked in graphic design and moved to Los Angeles.[3] She was connected with Katz through a graphic design friend who was dating him around 2017, and the pair decided to begin writing songs together.[3]

Cheekface formed in Los Angeles in 2017 with the recruitment of Edwards, with whom Katz was familiar from the city's music scene.[1][3] Tannen stated that she wanted to "be in a band that is not cool"; the group considered other names before Cheekface including Ryan Gosling's Huge Freakin' Delts and Plumping.[3] Cheekface's first year was dedicated to songwriting; Tannen and Katz described the writing process as attempts to make one another laugh, with lyrics that successfully accomplished this ending up in the songs.[3]

Katz and Tannen wrote what would become the group's breakout single, "Dry Heat/Nice Town" (2018), after attending the 2017 Women's March.[1][3] The band began to play live in 2018, generally as an opening act.[3] The band did not expect an enthusiastic response to their music.[3] However, in 2019 while playing a set at The Satellite in Los Angeles, Katz was startled when a small group of attendees sang along to every word in one of the band's tracks, temporarily causing him to forget several lines of his own lyrics.[3] After releasing several more singles on Bandcamp in 2018, including "Sexy National Anthem", "Glendale", and "I Only Say I'm Sorry When I'm Wrong Now", the band released their first album, Therapy Island, in March 2019.[4][5][6]

Against a bright purple backdrop, Cheekface performs in front of a crowded audience.
Release show for Too Much to Ask, at which the band's live album was recorded

Amidst the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Cheekface contributed a cover of "That Thing You Do!" to the tribute album Saving for a Custom Van, honoring the track's songwriter, Adam Schlesinger, who died of COVID-19 complications earlier in the year.[7] In January 2021, the band released its second album, Emphatically No., followed by an EP of B-sides from that record, titled Emphatically Mo'.[8] Emphatically No. was listed as one of Paste's 40 best rock albums of 2021.[9]

In August 2022, after teasing the album to fans via postcards,[3] the band released their third album Too Much to Ask.[10] Three months later, they released a second EP of B-sides entitled Don't Ask[11] and in December the band put out an unannounced live album, Live at Baby's All Right, recorded at Brooklyn's Baby's All Right the preceding October.[12]

The band continued to release singles in 2023, beginning in January with "The Fringe".[13] In December of that year, Cheekface announced a 2024 tour of the US and Canada, and followed this up with the surprise release of their fourth album, It's Sorted, in January 2024.[14][15]

Musical style and influences

Cheekface is an indie rock band.[2] Zach Schonfeld in Alternative Press described their music as lyrics-driven with a dry sense of humor and characterized the group's songs as consisting heavily of one-liners, obscure name-drops, and references to bygone cultural moments.[3] Schonfeld wrote about anxiety and sociopolitical dread being recurring themes in Cheekface's music.[3] The band asks sound technicians at venues they play for "no reverb, no delay, [and] lyrics should be clear".[3] The focus on lyrics over melody conveys a "jittery emotional landscape" that Katz has compared to someone speaking too quickly because they are anxious about something.[16] No songs released on the band's first two albums exceeded four minutes in length.[17]

Cheekface described themselves as being influenced by "great American talk-singers" including Lou Reed, Stephen Malkmus, and Jonathan Richman, as well as by the alternative hip hop group Das Racist.[1][3] In a 2022 review in Stereogum, Chris Deville compared Katz's singing style to that of Reed and Malkmus, as well as to James Murphy of the band LCD Soundsystem, Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan, Jeff Rosenstock, The B-52's, and Devo.[2]

Discography

Studio albums

B-sides EPs

Live album

References

  1. ^ a b c d DiBlasi, Loren (April 23, 2018). "Daily Dose: Cheekface, 'Dry Heat/Nice Town'". Paste. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Deville, Chris (August 2, 2022). "Album Of The Week: Cheekface Too Much To Ask". Stereogum. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Schonfeld, Zach (August 8, 2022). "Inside the rise of Cheekface, the scrappy LA band revered by an army of 'Cheek Freaks'". Alternative Press. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Wisgard, Alex (March 26, 2019). "Love Parquet Courts but wish they'd chill out a bit? Cheekface are for you". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  5. ^ Douglas, Martin; Cabrera, Albina; Ho, Tia; Albertson, Jasmine; Headley, Janice (October 29, 2021). "In Our Headphones: Las Robertas, Nicki Nicole, Mon Laferte, Helado Negro, El Shirota, Cheekface". KEXP. Archived from the original on February 25, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  6. ^ Ciocca, Morgan (February 11, 2020). "Cheekface to Play Schubas Tavern Feb. 13". WLUW. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  7. ^ Moreland, Quinn (June 16, 2020). "Ted Leo, Jeff Rosenstock, Sad13, and Charly Bliss Cover Adam Schlesinger on New Tribute Album: Listen". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Manno, Lizzie (January 11, 2021). "Cheekface Release New Album Emphatically No.". Paste. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  9. ^ "The 40 Best Rock Albums of 2021". Paste. December 27, 2021. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  10. ^ Russell, Scott (August 2, 2022). "Listen to Cheekface's Surprise New Album, Too Much to Ask". Paste. Archived from the original on August 15, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Deville, Chris (November 2, 2022). "Cheekface Share New B-Sides EP Don't Ask". Stereogum. Archived from the original on November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  12. ^ a b Moore, Em (December 2, 2022). "Cheekface surprise release live album". Punknews.org. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  13. ^ Deville, Chris (January 31, 2023). "Cheekface – 'The Fringe'". Stereogum. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  14. ^ Brasil, Sydney (December 7, 2023). "Cheekface Book 2024 North American Tour". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Chelosky, Danielle (January 22, 2024). "Stream Cheekface's Surprise New Album It's Sorted". Stereogum. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  16. ^ Schonfeld, Zach (October 13, 2021). "The Eternal Cool of Talk Singing". The Ringer. Archived from the original on September 13, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  17. ^ Bechtel, Craig (July 8, 2022). "The Perfect Cure: Your Recommended Dosage of Cheekface". Newcity. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  18. ^ "Emphatically Mo' (b-sides) - EP". Apple Music. September 22, 2021. Archived from the original on September 23, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2022.

External links

Categories