Phantom Tollbooth

about

Phantom Tollbooth was a post punk band from New York City. They played a style of post punk that included elements from jazz, noise rock, and art rock. This allowed Phantom Tollbooth to make sudden starts, stops, and tempo changes in their music. All of their albums were released in a four year window between 1984 to 1988 on Homestead Records. In 2003, Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard created new lyrics and melodies for Phantom Tollbooth's 1988 album Power Toy. The resulting work was released as Beard of Lightning. New band website: https://www.phantomtollboothband.com/ 1984-1988: Named after Norton Juster's psychedelic children's book, Phantom Tollbooth was a variation on the eclectic parallel-to-Hardcore of, among others, Mission of Burma and Saccharine Trust. Combining abrupt tempo and harmonic changes with dense sonic knots the very-powerful-trio created a classic punk/classic rock hybrid. Formed in 1984 by drummer Jon Coats, bassist Gerard Smith and guitarist Dave Rick, (the latter leaving his bass spot in the newborn Yo La Tengo to dedicate more time to the embryonic Tollbooth), they quickly joined the esteemed Homestead roster of superstars (Sonic Youth, Swans, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, etc.). PT went on to record two full albums and two almost full EPs and like most good and neglected bands from Indie Rock's pre-historic age, they played as if on fire and flamed out. After the breakup, Jon and Gerard formed the short-lived Burn, which included Mac McCaughan (

top songs

albums

Beard of Lightning

Valley of the Gwangi (Remastered) - Single

Power Toy

Phantom Tollbooth - EP (Remastered)

One Way Conversation (Remastered)

Flip Your Lid (7"version)

Phantom Tollbooth EP (Remastered)

Power Toy (Remastered)

Wax (Live @ CBGB 1988) [Remastered] - Single

Phantom Tollbooth

Crash Mode (Remastered) - Single

One-Way Conversation

similar artists