Melbourne, Australia’s The Toads’, debut album In the Wilderness will drop on June 9, 2023 via Upset The Rhythm (Nots). The group features members of The Shifters, The Living Eyes and Parsnip. The band formed after a short period of domestic readjustment mid-2021. Billy Gardner (guitar) found himself in need of a roof after his home was consumed by fire, and was kindly hosted by friend Stella Rennex (bass). Elsie Retter (drums) was a regular visitor to the house and after seeing Miles Jansen (vocals) tear it up with his other band at the local bowls club, they invited him along to sprinkle his deadpan musings across their fledgling sound.

After playing several shows, including a debut at Jerkfest in 2022, The Toads set about recording five songs mid-year for a tentative EP. Realising the songs were too long to fit on a 7”, they booked in another recording session the following September to extend the EP to 12”. Two tracks’ chords structures were fleshed out with new melodies and arrangements, and by this point The Toads were surprised to find they had an album’s worth of material, which would evolve into In The Wilderness. The band recently shared the album’s lead-single “Nationalsville.” Fans of The Vaselines, Wire, The Fall will be quite content with the stylings of the track.

Miles Jansen on “Nationalsville:”

““Nationalsville” is about a cotton farmer/ National party donor, water farming in the northern sector of the Murray-Darling basin. He removes the water gauge and lies about how much water they are stealing, while diverting a huge amount of it into his catchment. A charming situation.”

The Toads
In The Wilderness
Track Listing
Upset The Rhythm

01. Nationalsville
02. Two Dozen Functions
03. Sacred Books and the Damage Done
04. Ex-KGB
05. Gimme Little More
06. The Wandering Soul
07. Tale of a Town Split in Two
08. Sir Francis Drake
09. The Next Door
10. In The Wilderness

Pre order in In The Wilderness by The Toads Here