Band Crush: Tysk Tysk Task

Raw, stripped-down rock from Lowell

Before we get to today’s crush - the delightful Tysk Tysk Task - I wanted to give a quick shout out to a very old friend of Band Crush Will Dailey and his Isolation Tour. Will has been setting up cameras for Facebook and Instagram and “touring” different area venues from his bathroom, with donations raised going to the out of work bar staffs at each. He’s got one or two more, so check out his pages to get the details. Now here we go with Tysk Tysk Task!

Let's start at the beginning. Can you give us some background on your come up and journey so far?
We started in Dorchester in the summer of 2018 as a duo, with percussionist and still-active songwriter Kyle Cuneo and frontwoman Samantha Hartsel. With some lineup changes and the addition of a bass line and a whimsical harmonica that floats, and then sometimes screams and garbles under, West Coast 90s  indie grunge rock, the band found its current iteration with Jina Moran on drums, Mike Hayden on bass (also of pop punk band Allison & Moon), and Ben Kotce on the mouth harp. New songs were developed with the new member’s additional talents, to draw the Tysk Tysk Task away from the envisioned early minimalist White Stripes’ garage rock sound and into later PJ Harvey roar, with a full sound and mean beats and riffs crafted between Samantha and Jina in a Lowell loft building.

Our first album is coming out 3/28 (note: since doing this interview, the album has been delayed until mid-April - Boosh), “Everybody's Worried About Us,” mixed and recorded entirely by us. We have an Indiegogo for people to preorder the album. Our single Witchcraft came out a few days ago from it, and it’s indicative of these sound changes.

The band was formed, for me, out of the start of a separation from my husband, and my struggle of moving out of Boston as a single woman into a more affordable community like Lowell; it’s been a home to me on and off over the years and a city I love. Tysk Tysk Task has saved my life more than once, and I am grateful to my friends for helping pull this project forward with momentum.

What are people gonna see when they go to one of your shows? What are you hoping to leave them with?
A maelstrom of femme fury and power, powered by feminist anger. Two women pouring their hearts out on drums and guitar, backed by their friends on deep, dance along bass and crystal gem-like mystical harmonica, that acts like a synth when it’s played by a tall man with a pedalboard approximately five feet long so it can transform with the smash of a foot from violins to trumpets and whispers.

You've got carte blanche to put together a show in Boston. Who else is on it with you and where are you playing?
We played more than 50 shows last year in Boston and would love still to play our favorite venue, Great Scott. In a dreamworld scenario: Mary Timony works with me to bring Ex Hex in for an intimate show at Great Scott for them to headline with us opening, and Linnea’s Garden kicking off the show (fronted by our pal Linnea Herzog, formerly of PowerSlut). The Ex Hex set, after 30 minutes, devolves into a secret Helium reunion show and all of Boston rejoices. People are COVID-19 free and naked, dancing in the streets. Allston hipsters and college kids and even the trash rats rush in to pack Great Scott further, to the horror of health code inspectors everywhere, and Tysk Tysk Task is thrilled to have been a part of an amazing night.

What other Boston artists are you crushing on?
Our March 28 album release party had to be rescheduled to later this summer due to the coronavirus outbreak (just saying that out loud sounds so unbelievably dystopian/Orwellian). We have the biggest crushes ever on the band’s that agreed to party it up with us that night: Eye Witness, Linnea’s Garden, Happy Little Clouds, OroborO from the Berkshires and Alright Thanks. Other area bands we super crush on: Vundabar, Mint Green, Salty Greyhound, Corpsefuckerz, Tiffy, Dyr Faser, Violet Nox and the individual works of Fen, Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson, Mr. Airplane Man and the new project by Margaret Garrett, Stone and Star, Hayley Thompson-King (long live Margaret and Hayley’s Banditas!), The Seawolves, Hands 3, Five Feet and Anjimile. So many more we could name, but we’re honored to have homes in Lowell and Boston, where so many talented people are putting out killer music. If we’re including out-of-towners we’ve played with in the area, Late Night Trip of Providence and Lobby Boy of DC. 

You can find Tysk Tysk Task on Instagram, you can buy their music on Bandcamp, and you can preorder their latest on Indigogo.