{"id":6240,"date":"2025-10-27T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:30:00","slug":"slow-and-steady-wins-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow and Steady Wins the Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-1-1.jpeg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Tortoise. (Credit: Heather Cantrell)\"><figcaption>Tortoise. (Credit: Heather Cantrell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tortoise has done a lot in their 30+ years as a band. In the \u201890s, they became standard-bearers of the Chicago scene, their unusual instrumentation (three percussionists, two bassists) and eclectic palette (jazz, dub, EDM, prog) helping define a major wing of the instrumental post-rock genre. Their expansive 1998 album, <em>TNT<\/em>, with its cover doodle of a discombobulated, macrocephalic humanoid, has achieved icon status. They\u2019ve done a soundtrack\u2014the 2011 low-budget horror film <em>Lovely Molly<\/em>\u2014and been featured in a video game; certain versions of <em>Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars<\/em> devoted an in-game radio station to the band. But there\u2019s one milestone the band has left to reach: an appearance on a late-night talk show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTortoise did have a champion at, I believe it was \u2018Conan O\u2019Brien,\u2019\u201d bassist-guitarist Doug McCombs tells me, in a joint video call with percussionist and multi-instrumentalist John Herndon. \u201cEvery time we put out an album,\u201d McCombs recalled, NBC\u2019s Tortoise fan \u201ctried to get us on the show. And then the producers would say, \u2018Who do we point the camera at?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/rosalia-berghain-video\/\">Rosal\u00eda Gets Surreal In \u2018Berghain\u2019 Video<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/cornucopia-live-captures-bjork-at-the-height-of-her-live-power\/\">\u2018Cornucopia Live\u2019 Captures Bj\u00f6rk At the Height of Her Live Power<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/mumford-and-sons-hozier-single\/\">Mumford &amp; Sons \u2018Band\u2019 Together With Hozier<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cNEXT!\u201d Herndon interjects, mimicking the voice of a dismissive entertainment honcho.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the band\u2019s strenuous avoidance of a focal point, which extends to their aversion to genre boundaries, conventional songwriting structure, and general rock fundamentals, Tortoise has managed to thrive even as the commercial media that spurned them declines. Their 1996 album, <em>Millions Now Living Will Never Die, <\/em>and<em> TNT <\/em>would be enough to cement their status as cult heroes\u2014but 2001\u2019s <em>Standards<\/em> and 2004\u2019s <em>It\u2019s All Around You<\/em> pushed their sound in fruitful new directions, exploring electronic dynamism and immersive ambience, respectively. The band slowed down after that, releasing only two albums between 2004 and 2016, but kept the flame alive and the fanbase growing with tours, festival appearances, and special projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-1290x860.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Yusuke Nagata)\" class=\"wp-image-646084\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-1290x860.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-498x332.jpg 498w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/photo-by-Yusuke-Nagata-1668x1112.jpg 1668w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Yusuke Nagata)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no pressure on us to push out records,\u201d McCombs says. \u201cWe can just keep doing stuff at our own pace, when we want to. We can adapt to situations.\u201d This low-impact lifestyle has kept the band from burning out but has occasionally come with a downside. \u201cOften, I\u2019ll run into people that I know pretty well that are surprised Tortoise is still together,\u201d McCombs admits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even longtime Tortoise followers may be surprised by <em>Touch<\/em>, the band\u2019s hard-driving, buoyant, and melodic new album co-released by scrappy Chicago jazz label International Anthem and highbrow heavyweight Nonesuch Records. \u201cThis was definitely different,\u201d McCombs says of <em>Touch<\/em>. \u201cI am not quite sure [about it] yet, but I know I\u2019m happy with the results.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the beat-forward thump and nervy, vibrant riffage of <em>Touch<\/em> tracks like \u201cElka\u201d and \u201cVexations\u201d sound like the work of a different, hungrier band, numbers like the chilled-out, vibraphone-led \u201cA Title Comes\u201d or the booming, percussive sway of \u201cPromenade \u00e0 deux\u201d recall the classic Tortoise sound, equal parts jazz fusion, mood music, and art-rock. It\u2019s an album of departures, returns, risks, and reliability, with the changes due in most part to the band\u2019s altered circumstances: The five members of Tortoise no longer live in the same place. Guitarist Jeff Parker has been in L.A. since 2013, but since then, Herndon has also moved there (he was slightly late for the interview due to traffic), while percussionist-keyboardist-mixing engineer John McEntire relocated to Portland, Oregon. Only McCombs and percussionist Dan Bitney remain in Chicago. This understandably forced the band to modify their recording process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/IARC0099_Cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-646085\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/IARC0099_Cover.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/IARC0099_Cover-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/IARC0099_Cover-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/IARC0099_Cover-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The cover of <em>Touch<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe had to make plans to get together. We didn\u2019t really want to do anything too email-oriented,\u201d McCombs says. \u201cWe more thought it was important to try to be together someplace.\u201d This alone might explain the immediacy of <em>Touch<\/em> tracks like \u201cLayered Presence,\u201d which sizzles and writhes in a way that Tortoise songs rarely do. But as always with a counterintuitive band like Tortoise, there\u2019s a little more to it. The band got together in their respective home bases for several recording sessions, with ideas gradually coalescing and songs slowly consolidating. \u201cEach time, we evaluated where we thought we were and what needed to happen next,\u201d Herndon says. \u201cAnd we just kind of rolled with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That combination of careful consideration and going with the flow might sound contradictory, but that\u2019s just part of the Tortoise method, which blends composition, improvisation, in-studio sparks, and heavy post-production work. \u201cThat last push toward the end of a record, for Tortoise, is where a lot of the interesting things happen,\u201d McCombs says. \u201cWe would normally all be sitting in a room together listening to the stuff while it\u2019s mixed, and throwing out suggestions, and sometimes drastically changing things, coming up with new arrangements \u2026 all up until the very end. This time, it didn\u2019t seem like it was going to be possible to do that the way we had in the past.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the band spent five days in McEntire\u2019s in-home studio in Portland, where \u201cwe got a lot of the really big stuff out of the way, and the rest we just sort of did by email,\u201d McCombs says. \u201cThe last, I would say, six months of listening to and revising mixes, it just took a lot of patience \u2026 We had to improve our communication skills. We had to be in touch with each other and how we described certain elements of what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even with the album in the can, the flow of communication continues, with McCombs and Herndon discussing alterations to a percussion track on \u201cVexations\u201d during the interview. \u201cThere was a drum part that I really liked and no one else really liked, even the person that played it,\u201d McCombs recalls. \u201cAnd then John Herndon took that track and reworked the entire track on his own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-2-alt.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-646241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-2-alt.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-2-alt-340x255.jpeg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-2-alt-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/10\/Tortoise-photo-by-Heather-Cantrell-2-alt-498x374.jpeg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Heather Cantrell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know Doug was so enamored with the part that I played, that I decided to replace,\u201d Herndon interjects. After some mild prodding from McCombs that hints at the back-and-forth nature of Tortoise communication, Herndon delivers some more details: \u201cI listened to the thing, and all I could hear was Stan Lynch playing it. So I was like, I\u2019m just going to try to play it with a big old pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Herndon\u2019s mention of Lynch, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer, surprises you, that\u2019s just part of the Tortoise process\u2014disagreements lead to conversation and conversation leads to unexpected innovations and revelations. In the course of our conversation, another unusual Tortoise touchstone emerges: Devo. \u201cThey\u2019re really huge to me,\u201d McCombs says of the pioneering new wave outfit, with Herndon mentioning that he\u2019s seen the recent documentary about the band twice. \u201cIsn\u2019t the story that you saw them on \u2018Saturday Night Live,\u2019 and the next day you went out and bought a bass?\u2019\u201d Herndon asks McCombs. \u201cNo, I went out and bought my first record,\u201d McCombs replies.<\/p>\n<p>More than 30 years later, the band\u2019s still talking, and continuing to find new things to say. \u201cI feel like as long as we take our time and only work on stuff when it seems like we want to, then there\u2019s no reason for the band to ever end,\u201d McCombs says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s still that one pinnacle yet to reach: late-night fame. \u201cMy ground-floor experience was seeing Devo on \u2018SNL\u2019,\u2019 I always wanted to play \u2018SNL.\u2019 That was my only goal in life, to play on that show,\u201d McCombs says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lorne Michaels, get moving, and make sure you talk to the camera person first.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tortoise. (Credit: Heather Cantrell) Tortoise has done a lot in their 30+ years as a band. In the \u201890s, they became standard-bearers of the Chicago scene, their unusual instrumentation (three&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,2686],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pushly","category-tortoise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}