Local rock band Too Many Cooks, released their first EP “Kitchen Sink” on Sept. 29.
Too Many Cooks is well-known in the Bloomington music community for performing at numerous house shows and festivals. After forming the band in February 2022, the rocker quartet: Ed Lockwood, Marcus Drolet, Andrew Umana and Austen Eicher, quickly gained local recognition.
In fact, Rewind Records, a local business that manufactures and sells merchandise for bands, featured Too Many Cooks on its website. Rewind Records has been promoting local bands since 2011 and has a shop at the Fountain Square Mall downtown.
“As the saying goes, it can be tough to have too many cooks in the kitchen, but at times, when the stars align, and the synergy is there, it just works,” wrote Rewind Records.
I will let the music speak for itself, but in my opinion, Rewind Records is absolutely correct.
“Kitchen Sink” features six songs. It is a 19-minute soulful work of art that dissects feelings every coming-of-age college student knows all too well. This EP explores different genres of rock, while paying homage to 70s psychedelic rock, blues rock and modern indie rock.
The opening track, “Fork,” is a 30-second piece of dishes scraping and water running, presumably at a kitchen sink as alluded to in the EP title. We briefly hear a person humming, then we are wistfully transported into another world for the next four songs.
In this world, we gain the courage to actually call our ex at midnight. We question other people’s intentions. We “Stargaze” and reminisce. We become trapped in a spell we cannot escape.
And we slowly gain the urge to scream as loud as we can in the face of everyone that has hurt us.
Then, we finish our dishes in the sixth and final track “Spoon,” which is just like “Fork” except this time, people are laughing in the background as we clean our kitchenware.
I listened to this EP in one sitting. My first thought was, “I can’t believe the emotional journey I just went on in such a short amount of time.” My second thought was, “I really need to meet the guitarist.”
Every song on the EP, with the exception of “Fork” and "Spoon,” begins with a sensuous guitar riff. It would be easy to simply focus on the beautiful sounds of the guitar throughout the duration of each song if the lyrics were not so perfectly written.
I truly believe that there is something for everyone hidden inside of “Kitchen Sink.” One might say that this EP includes everything, even the kitchen sink.
To see posts about upcoming shows and song releases, follow Too Many Cooks on Instagram @toomanycookstheband or visit the band’s Spotify.
Editor's Note: Marcus Drolet previously worked at the Indiana Daily Student.
