Willie Schube originally recorded this post on a 4-inch reel.
The press release announcing Tobacco’s first album in four years, Ultima II Massage, ends like this: “No happy ending.” Sounds about right. At it’s best Tobacco’s music sounds like psychedelia run through a garbage disposal. I mean this in the best way imaginable. The Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman makes music that’s, for lack of a better word, grimy. Dirty, sweaty, and raw.
It may be lazy to align his music with the characteristics of a person who’s just smoked tobacco, but the parallels are there. His newest track, “Eruption,” is quite possibly the perfect embodiment of this. Over a distorted beat that sounds like its caught in sludge (almost all of his beats can be described this way, but part of his brilliance is that the shit never gets old), Tobacco sings, “Lick that popsicle/like a motherfucking baby.” He continues, “It’s a nice fucking day and I’m feeling fucking good/Eruption, eruption.” The words, vocoded as always, have swagger—Tobacco’s presentation is impeccable, but the song is fucking creepy. That he’s able to invoke both of these feelings on almost everything he does is a serious testament to his singularity. The grime, the sweat, the taste—these would come off as gross and unappealing if produced by any other artist; but for some reason, Tobacco makes it all feel good.
