It’s only a matter of time before everyone in Houston will have an “I knew them when” story about the Tontons. Now that the local indie-rock quartet is releasing its first full-length CD, The Tontons, the clock is ticking. The term “breakout potential” gets thrown around all too easily — especially around here, where the scene sometimes seems downright desperate for validation from beyond the Loop — but the Tontons absolutely have the talent and charisma to be somebody’s Next Big Thing. Singer Asli Omar is a big, big voice in a tiny package and a dynamic front woman who seizes her audience’s attention (and affection) and doesn’t let up. The three guys behind her, meanwhile, etch out carefully wrought musical canvases of everything from hard-edged psychedelic blues-rock to carnivalesque waltzes to simmering ballads — which, if you close your eyes, you’d swear it was Billie Holliday singing. Saturday’s CD release at Caroline Collective is the Tontons’ first step in a journey that will take them who knows where, destined to be one of those “I was there” moments for the band’s growing circle of fans.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.
