French Toast
Ingleside Terrace CD
Biography
Washington D.C.’s French Toast initially comprised Jerry Busher and James Canty, two veterans of the D.C. scene who have been friends for almost twenty years. The list of bands from the scene they have been involved in runs far and deep, including Nation Of Ulysses, Make Up, Fidelity Jones, All Scars, Las Mordidas and Fugazi; it was with the All Scars that Busher and Canty first collaborated, undertaking a five-week, eight-country tour that was based solely around improvisation. Upon return to the states, they took the ideas and energy from that tour to form French Toast.
The band’s first full-length album, In a Cave, was released in March 2005 on Dischord. A contemplative dark pop album which never loses sight of hook and melody, both catchy and intelligent, In a Cave was the product of several years’ on-and-off work, transferring the ideas gleaned from the All Scars tour into a concise, poppy record that belies the careful crafting behind it. Since its release, French Toast have expanded, enlisting the services of Ben Gilligan (of Small Doses, The Vague and Presuming Ed) on second guitar and vocals.
Reborn as a three- piece, French Toast returned to the studio to record with Brendan Canty (Fugazi) in April 2006; the result was Ingleside Terrace, a collection of sharp, catchy riffs intertwined with melodies even more surging and compelling than those on In a Cave, due out in September 2006. With this record, French Toast’s unique, dynamic approach, an affectionately glossy take on D.C. hardcore orthodoxy, has come of age.