The Lemon Twigs – Not always Pop Rock – Not Always Glam Rock.
The Lemon Twigs for this Tuesday Lunchroom – recorded at Le Bataclan in Paris on September 16, 2024.
Brian and Michael D’Addario had extensive stage experience as children. Brian played Gavroche in Les Miserables and Flounder in The Little Mermaid on Broadway. Michael appeared in The Coast of Utopia, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and the 2008 production of All My Sons. Michael also appeared in a variety of television shows and films, such as John Adams on HBO, Are We There Yet? on TBS, and the 2012 films People Like Us and Sinister. The D’Addario brothers first played music together in a cover band called Members of the Press.
The Lemon Twigs were founded by the brothers while they were both students at Hicksville High School on Long Island, New York. The siblings both perform lead vocals, lead guitar, drums and other instruments. Their first release was the cassette What We Know, issued in a limited edition of 100 copies (with digital download) in 2015 by Winspear.
The Lemon Twigs played on Foxygen‘s 2017 album Hang, credited as playing drums, percussion, acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and organ. They also were players on Weyes Blood‘s Titanic Rising, released in 2019 via Sub Pop records. Michael played drums on three of the tracks, while Brian played guitar, bass, piano and synthesizer on five tracks; he is also credited with production on “Mirror Forever” and providing the string arrangement to album opener “A Lot’s Gonna Change”, and instrumental closer “Nearer To Thee.” The Lemon Twigs performed on many tracks for Tim Heidecker‘s album Fear of Death, released on September 25, 2020, alongside Weyes Blood. They are credited for playing bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, vocals, and mellotron. The Twigs collaborated with Todd Rundgren on the song “I’m Leaving” from Rundgren’s 2022 album, Space Force. They provided backing vocals on Chris Stamey‘s 2025 single, “I’d Be Lost Without You”.
The Twigs have also toured and recorded with and produced the band Tchotchke, a New York–based rock trio in which both the D’Addarios’ girlfriends play.
The Lemon Twigs’ musical style has been described as indie rock, power pop, glam rock, indie pop, baroque rock, art rock, and jangle pop. In a 2024 interview, band member Michael D’Addario described the band’s sound as fundamentally “pop rock. … It’s not always power pop and it’s certainly not always glam rock. … The through line would be pop structures and rock-based instrumentation.” Michael cited the Beatles and the Beach Boys as their ultimate musical influences, adding that their other musical influences were in turn inspired by those bands. (The brothers jokingly refer to this mashup of Beatles and Beach Boys sounds as a genre called “Mersey Beach“.)
In 2016, The Times characterized the Lemon Twigs’ early sound as “a modern-day band combining the melodic, harmony-rich soft rock of Wings and Supertramp, the underground cool of Big Star and the Ramones, and the theatricality of Broadway musicals.” The Guardian cited the “humbling beauty of their songs” and their “sumptuous harmonies.” A number of diverse pop music figures have publicly expressed admiration for the Twigs: Elton John, the Zombies, Dan and Justin Hawkins, Boy George, Gary Brooker, Iggy Pop, Todd Rundgren, Flea, Gerard Way, Questlove, Alice Cooper, Michael McDonald, and Jack Antonoff.
Thanks Wikipedia – now dive in and crank it up – chew your food slowly.
