Rightfully toiling in obscurity during parts or all of The Years of Our Lord 1994 through 1996, Torgo was a moderately ambitious indie rock trio based out of Middletown, CT's Wesleyan University. The act was comprised of J. Breitling on guitar and vocals, P. Ginsberg on bass and P. Sibbet on drums. And Cocklav the kick drum-deadening plush mascot. Over the two years the band played about a dozen or more shows, and recorded three slates of studio demos as well as four-track stuff.
Torgo, so named for the nefariously large-kneed character from an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 favored by Mssrs. Ginsberg and Sibbet, took its inspiration from contemporary hitmakers of the day including Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr., Lilys, Archers of Loaf, Poole, Small Factory, Haywood, Wendyfix, Sunny Day Real Estate, Slint, Radiohead, The Grifters, Unwound, Silkworm and Seam. In fact, many Torgo songs sprang from outright and botched attempts to learn to play songs by other bands ("Security" being an attempt at an approximation of SDRE's soaring and far superior "Sometimes," and a little of Wendyfix's understated downer "Silence"). The sum total of extant Torgo recordings is 35. We'd like to think that the songs continue to stand up for what they were and when they were written during our musical development. All of them will be posted here at one point or another in the future. Yeah. Kill. Die.
"Maybe It's Better," a longtime Torgo live staple, is a cover of a song by a band called Whorl.
