Doug Tuttle: Doug Tuttle 2014 + It Calls On me 2016

 

Guitarist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter Doug Tuttle's first band, Mmoss, was a deeply psychedelic

project and when it split, Tuttle shifted musical gears. Recording in a home studio, Tuttle made records using various folk/rock, psych, and classic rock elements; his first two were lo-fi takes on melancholy psych pop that featured his buzzing guitar and mournful vocals.
                   

By the time of 2017's Peace Potato though, he'd switched gears and began crafting mid-fi versions of

mainstream '70s rock that wouldn't sound out of place next to Tom Petty on a playlist. A guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter influenced by classic pop, psychedelia, and rock of the '60s and '70s who had been playing since the age of six, Tuttle was living in Boston, Massachusetts when he met multi-instrumentalist Rachel Neveu, and the two soon bonded romantically and musically.
                

In 2007, Tuttle and Neveu relocated to New Hampshire, where they formed the band Mmoss.

Mmoss' first album, a self-recorded effort called i, was picked up for release in 2011 by the noted indie label Burger Records; they then moved to Chicago's Trouble in Mind Records and released their second album, Only Children, in 2012. However, in early 2013, Mmoss broke up, and Tuttle's relationship with Neveu fell apart.
                     

Emotionally devastated, Tuttle relocated to Somerville, Massachusetts and retreated into his music,

Mmoss

writing and recording material in a makeshift studio he set up in a former woodshop. By the end of the year, Tuttle had emerged with his first solo album, Doug Tuttle, an 11-song set full of epic-scale guitar solos and clever production touches informed by his breakup with Neveu. It was issued by Trouble in Mind in early 2014.
               

After spending a large part of 2015 touring, Tuttle returned early the next year with his second album,

the softer, more country-rock-inspired It Calls on Me. He headed back out on the road, then went back home to record more songs. His third album, Peace Potato, was released in early 2017 by longtime home Trouble in Mind. The album found him drifting further away from his psychedelic roots for a sound that was a home-cooked East Coast version of chiming heartland rock.
                   

He jumped ship after this release, making a move to Burger Records for his fourth record, 2019's

Dream Road. With a more countrified and laid-back sound, Tuttle also folded some '70s AM radio influences (soft rock, especially) into his sound.
              

DOUG TUTTLE - DOUG TUTTLE 2014

                            

There's a long and noble tradition of musicians who've been prompted to create great work through

heartbreak and lo-fi guitar hero Doug Tuttle has joined the roster with his self-titled solo debut. Tuttle and Rachel Neveu were the founders of the New England indie psych band Mmoss, and they were also a couple; after a pair of fine albums, both the band and their relationship broke up, and as Tuttle struggled emotionally with his newly single status, he began writing and recording a batch of new material that became the album Doug Tuttle.
             

Tuttle doesn't spend all his time drowning in his own tears on this album, but every song touches on the

pains of a love gone sour in some small way, and his sorrow is communicated as much by the music as the lyrics (besides, the vocals are often left murky in the album's mix).
               

There's often a dour turn in Tuttle's melodies that registers as sorrow, but this is also top-shelf lo-fi

psychedelia, full of strong guitar work (check out his three-minute showcase solo on "Turn This Love"), evocative low-budget production (signal overload, homemade effects gear, and heavy manipulated sound effects), and arrangements that get powerful impact out of small instrumentation (the contrast between the acrobatic basslines and the squeal of the electric organ on "Leave Your Body" is particularly inspired).
              

And it's obvious that Tuttle's greatest influences hail from the mid-'60s through the early '70s, but he's

also created an album that sounds original, absorbing, and heartfelt despite its ties to another time and place. While Mmoss created a small but memorable body of work, Doug Tuttle proves their former guitarist has the talent and the vision to create music just as remarkable all by himself; hopefully, he won't have to have his heart broken again in order to deliver another set of music this engaging.
                 

Doug Tuttle – Doug Tuttle
Label: Trouble In Mind – TIM065
Format: CD, Album, Cardboard
Country: US
Released: 2014
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Folk Rock, Dream Pop

TRACKS

                

01. With Us Soon
02. Forget The Days
03. Turn This Love
04. Where You Plant Your Love... Is Where It Grows
05. Lasting Away
06. Leave Your Body
07. We Could Live
08. I Won't Do
09. Sewn Day
10. I Will Leave
11. Better Days (The Wools Grown Lighter)

Total Time: 38'

Flac Size: 250 MB

IT CALLS ON ME 2016

                          

After releasing a brilliant debut full of lo-fi psych-pop splendor, Doug Tuttle's second album, It Calls on

Me, delivers more of the same with a few alterations here and there. The former leader of the band Mmoss is less heartbroken this time out, the recording quality jumps from extravagantly lo to very solid mid, and the overall feel of the album is less trippy and more relaxed.
                

It sounds like he's fallen headfirst into a folk-rock meets country-rock mood, with plenty of gently

strummed acoustic guitars, lots of jangling electrics, and vocal harmonies that would make Crosby & Nash, and possibly Stills too, proud.
                     

There are still enough fuzzy guitar workouts to keep fans of the first album satisfied and a couple tracks

end with fiery jams where Tuttle sounds like he's thrashing the speakers in his amp to within an inch of their lives. Mostly though, Tuttle seems content to ride the breeze, sweetly crooning and strumming with barely any psychedelic effects getting in the way.
               

It's almost hard to reconcile the laid-back dude of "Falling to Believe" or "On Your Way" with the

bursting-with-energy guy of the first album. Only the guitar solos give it away and then, they are fleeting. It's less a transformation than Tuttle showing another side of himself that was lurking quietly behind the fuzz and flange on the first album.
     

Anyone who dug the fire and fireworks on that record may be a little let down by the different,

stripped-down and almost nakedly honest feel of It Calls on Me, but the overall excellence of the songs should help cushion the blow. With the less busy, more graceful arrangements, the beauty of the melodies comes through a little more clearly and Tuttle's very fine vocals are allowed more space in the mix.
                  

It makes for a more emotionally deep listen, with fewer tricks to distract from the issues at hand. Tuttle

had already proven himself a high-level psychedelic wizard; with this album he proves that he's a singer/songwriter to be reckoned with.
                      

Doug Tuttle – It Calls On Me
Label: Trouble In Mind – TIM105
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Feb 19, 2016
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Dream Pop, Folk Rock, Indie Rock

TRACKS

             

01. A Place For You
02. It Calls On Me
03. Make Good Time
04. These Times
05. Painted Eye
06. Falling To Believe
07. On Your Way
08. Saturday/Sunday
09. Where You Will Go

Total Time: 29'

Flac Size: 190 MB

Mmoss on Urban Aspirines HERE