Tilly and the Wall

Thoroughly Modern Tilly

Tilly and The Wall @ Mercy Lounge, Nashville, October 18
By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Nashville Scene, October 2012

For that fleeting moment when Omaha, Nebraska, was the indie-pop capital of America, Tilly and the Wall were the party-time, tap-dancing complement to Conor Oberst’s after-party mope fests. Now, roughly a decade into their career, the Tilly crew are out to prove they can still shake you out of your personal doldrums, despite the fact they’re all lawfully wedded 30-somethings with diapers to change. In fact, on Heavy Mood – the band’s first album in four years – Jamie’s Pressnall’s tap shoe percussion is decidedly stompier than it’s ever been before. “My baby’s got all kinds of guns,” Kianna Alarid Cameron bellows on the Best Coast-ish “All Kinds of Guns.” “And he sticks to every one.” No one would have blamed Tilly for sticking to their own, but this brand of raucousness feels like new ground even for them.