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Hear Christopher Owens Opener Melted Toys’ Synth-Baked ‘Always’

Christopher Owens

As former Girls frontman Christopher Owens sets out on tour in support of solo album Lysandre, he has tapped another San Francisco-based group, Melted Toys, to support him at several shows.

Not without reason: The Fader points to “Always,” from the band’s tour-only cassette, which contains demos from their upcoming full-length, plus past singles, and their 2011 debut EP on Underwater People. One of the demos, “Always” ought to encourage fans of lo-fi synth-pop to arrive early early for psychedelic guitars, softly insidious vocals, and thick, chewy electronics. Rather than echo the flute- and saxophone-based chamber pop of Lysandre, Melted Toys’ sound is hazily complementary.

As for Owens, he reiterated that there were no hard feelings behind the Girls breakup in an extensive New York Times profile. “Nobody hated each or anything like that,” but success “happened a little too fast,” he’s quoted as saying. “The band would have survived longer if he would have gone slower.” J R White, the other half of the duo, didn’t respond to the Times’ requests for comment.

Otherwise, Owens detailed his previously reported encounters with, as the Times neatly puts it, “cults, drug use, sexual experimentation, [and] millionaire benefactors.” (Owens is a “made-to-order rock star,” the New Yorker recently observed.) Though the Lysandre singer-songwriter’s upbringing in the Children of God cult and subsequent rescue by eccentric tycoon Stanley Marsh 3 remain fascinating, Owens tends to shrug off the more exotic aspects of his biography. “It’s not that big of a deal,” he’s quoted as saying. “Sometimes I feel like a European or something.”

Christopher Owens tour dates with Melted Toys:
January 15 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
January 16 – Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag
January 21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
January 22 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
January 25 – Boston, MA @ Bowery Ballroom
January 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
January 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club