Acoustic duo, boy/girl indiepop

Nora and I had been friends for a couple of years before we formed Tokidoki. We lived in the same dorm at college. We had some similar music tastes, and we both worked at the college radio station. We were into some early 1990s indie rock and indie pop like the Spinanes, Pavement, Guided By Voices, the Mountain Goats, and stuff like that. Through the college radio station we were exposed to the whole indie pop scene, like K records and Sarah records. We both took an interest in that style. Tokidoki was formed during the summer of 1995. We had both played in different bands, but hadn't worked together. I played in a punk-pop group called Remy that sounded a bit like Superchunk. Nora played in a acoustic/drums duo called Not Without My Daughter. They sounded a bit like Courtney Love (the band). Neither of those bands ever did a record, though. So we started Tokidoki, playing the kind of music that we liked. Neither of us was into complicated music. We liked to write songs, but we didn't care much for extended instrumentation or jams or anything like that. We kept it simple, and used the acoustic guitar and a keyboard. We only used one sound from the keyboard, and that was the organ sound. We took turns playing both keyboard and guitar, and we both wrote songs. We played a couple of shows for our friends. We were lucky to have a mutual friend who wanted to start a record label. His name was Dave Knapik, and he released our first 7" called "Margies Candies" on his label Tiny Shoes. Our single came out the same night as our first real show. We lucked-out and got a show at this pretty big club in Chicago called the Metro opening for this band called Sleater Kinney. I don't know if you know them, but they are pretty loud. They weren't very similar to us, and we were a little confused as to why we were coupled with them. But we weren't going to argue about it, because it was a big show and we were lucky to have it. Then we got another show opening for a band called the Apples In Stereo. We are always pretty lucky at getting good shows. I think it's because we are pretty unique. People hear our records, and it tends to stand out amidst the flood of standard rock stuff. I think it's mostly luck, though. So we got this second show, and that was also at this big club. We aren't really the big club sort of band. We always wanted to play small shows. But it was hard to get our foot in the door for the small hipper clubs in Chicago. This guy named Jeff Graham was in the audience for the Apples In Stereo show. He liked us a lot, and we had a mutual friend. He also liked our record. And he helped us get booked at this club called the Lounge Ax. At the time, it was the best club in Chicago. Any indie pop group that came to Chicago played there (unless they were pretty big like the Apples and they needed a larger venue). So that's how we got our foot in the door with the Lounge Ax. We played a ton of shows, some with Aden and some with other bands. Nora was invited to sing on the first Aden CD, which was great. There was a little scene brewing in Chicago, but it wasn't that big. Chicago at the time was known for being the home of Tortoise and Shellac. Tokidoki is like the anti-Shellac. So indie pop in Chicago was never that well received. But there were some other groups besides Tokidoki and Aden there was Number One Cup and Hooker OK. So Nora and I wrote a ton of songs, and we were ready to do another single. But Dave from Tiny Shoes was broke. So we sent out tapes to 5 labels. We got lucky again and got offers from 2 of the 5. The first label to contact us was Harriet Records out of Boston. Tim Alborn (founder of Harriet) turned-out to be a great guy. He liked our stuff and wanted to do a single. He came to Chicago for a conference, and we happened to be playing a show at the Lounge Ax that weekend. I forget who we played with? It might have been this band called Ida. Anyway, it was a great show but someone called in a bomb threat! It was fucked-up. We all had to evacuate for a while so they could search for the bomb. There was no bomb, though. We all hung-out at a record store down the street while they did the bomb sweep. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Tim, we got invited to play some shows on the east coast. We played about 6 shows in 10 days in places like NYC, Boston, Yale, etc. For most of those shows we opened for the Softies, but we also got to play with great bands like the Receptionists, the Musical Chairs, and Pest 5000. So that was our little "tour." It was quite a time. Later our Harriet single came out. The other label we heard from was Sunday. I was always a huge Cat's Miaow fan ever since their first single. Albert said he would do a cd. We had a ton of songs written, so we said "okay." We recorded it with Mike Kurtz from the band Hooker OK. He was a good friend of ours. We recorded it on a four-track, but mixed it in the studio. We always play and sing at the same time when we record. Then Nora graduated (she was a year younger but I stayed in Chicago). Nora moved to NYC. Every year or so I make it out to NYC and we make sure to play together as Tokidoki. We've done a few concerts out there too since then. We've even written some new material, but don't get to play much since I live here and she lives in NYC. But we are still friends. Then Albert went on hiatus and the cd got shelved until now.