Experienced and professional band 87 and the toys landed on our radar recently with this amazing song, “Shopping Mall,” from their latest EP, “The Smile Room,” and we are super excited to share it with you. The song is a great experience from start to finish and will leave you stuck on constant repeat for a long time.
We listened to this song several times, and we still can’t find the right words to describe it. The band has a unique sound and their lyrics are original and will get stuck in your mind in no time. The vocals are amazing and the production is creative, professional and brought this record to a whole new level. The instruments are enjoyable and made us rewind the songs over and over again the first time we heard them. We love this band’s musical style and can’t wait to see where their career will go over the coming months.
In summary, I think it’s safe to say 87 and the toys are setting themselves up for something truly amazing. Go ahead and check out the song for yourself and let us know what you think. Don’t forget to follow 87 and the toys online to stay up to date on any upcoming releases!
ABOUT THE BAND:
Sugary smiles will be spreading across many more rooms soon as super-catchy trio 87 and the toys have a fun new album out and are permanently relocating to the Live Music Capital of the World, to get their music to a much wider audience. The Smile Room is an EP but with all the weight of a major album, as front man Patrick Luckett has hit his songwriting stride with this third independent release by the band.
Every act has an origin story: Drummer and backing vocalist Hana Irie first met her boyfriend Patrick in San Francisco, where the two worked together at a ramen restaurant. Hana is of full Japanese heritage and Patrick is half-Japanese, while the third member of the group, Kentucky bred Dave Skidmore, was a Southerner living out West like Patrick. Both men had lived in Atlanta, so the connections were there.
In Japan, certain numbers relate to certain syllables, and HA NA is 87. Patrick coined the band name in tribute to Hana, and their first intentionally low-fi, home-recorded release out of California was called Japanesy If You Pleasey, as the band lengthened the name to include “…and the toys.”
HARDER. dropped next, after the band relocated from tech economy turned NorCal to the Pacific Northwest. Portland is a good enough band culture city, and 87 and the toys were welcomed into the creative fold. The music was more guitar- and drums-driven, the sound a bit heavier and less focused around melodic sound trips. There was even a minor hit of sorts, as the original version of Shopping Mall had a good bit of radio airplay in Europe. The band worked with regarded producer John Vanderslice to develop HARDER., which was recorded at his studio, Tiny Telephone. Death Cab for Cutie and many other nationally known acts had recorded in his studios, and Patrick attributes him with instilling an initial confidence in the songwriting, saying, “He was the first person of influence that said it was any good. His opinion mattered to me; he loved my songs.”
All College Report sporting culture and travel series, which can be seen on YouTube, grabbed the song 29 Pictures for an intro/outro theme, with show creator and host Han Vance saying, “The layering of male-and-female vocals remind me of Pixies, my favorite band from back when I was in college at UGA.”
The rain kept falling in Portland, dragging on for months, and as the band had once played SXSW in Austin and liked the warmer weather there more, Patrick decided it was time for a big change.
With The Smile Room, Patrick took the advice of a published poet and early superfan of the band, who talked to him in detail about the quite common poetry book publishing concept of including “New & Selected” poems. 87 and the toys re-recorded Shopping Mall, with a clearer vision of what the end product could be, a sharper sound.
A new music video for the hit-to-be is being made in Portland in February 2023. Patrick says, “It’s the last thing we’re doing in Portland, and then were moving to Texas…with stars in our eyes. This is our best album, by far. It stacks up and my band’s future is looking sunny.”
87 and the toys are being hailed as an American indie rock act to watch. The Smile Room rules.
