Bay Area local favorite alternative folk group Rin Tin Tiger is back at it with a new album recorded in our fair city’s own Tiny Telephone studios. We picked up an advance copy of Toxic Pocketbook courtesy of band member Sean Sullivan a few weeks ago and we gotta say, we’re impressed.

Sean told us via email that they used no drum or vocal editing and went completely back to basics to put the thing together, and it shows in the music. Genuine, unadulterated folk alternative. It’s the kind of album you might get a craving for at the end of your night when only that one song will really hit the spot. You’re yearning for the comfort of a a contagious harmonica riff or the calming sound of familiar lyrics; enter Rin Tin Tiger’s “Pretty Looks.” Aah, that’s better. If you listen to it once and it’s not stuck in your head for at least the next 48 hours then you didn’t listen to it right. The harmonies echo acts like the Head and the Heart’s and their instrumentals (read: harmonica) earn comparisons to folk superheroes like M. Ward and Mason Jennings.

You can catch the band celebrating the release of their newest record at Great American Music Hall on July 26th with another Bay Area local act, the Tumbleweed Wanderers, and Ghost and the City.

Rin Tin Tiger, Tumbleweed Wanderers, Ghost & the City
Thursday, July 26th
Great American Music Hall
Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8:00pm, $15