The Teeth

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The Teeth
The cover of You're My Lover Now
Background information
Origin	Philadelphia, USA
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	2001–April 3rd,2008
Label(s)	Park The Van
Website	www.theteeth.net
Members
Aaron MoDavis Peter Modavis Brian Ashby Jonas Oesterle

The Teeth is a punk rock band from Philadelphia consisting of twin brothers Aaron MoDavis on rhythm guitar and Peter MoDavis on bass guitar. Other members include Brian Ashby on lead guitar and Jonas Oesterle on drums. They were created in 2001 when the MoDavis brothers moved to Philadelphia, and they have since risen to prominence in the Philadelphia area and have reached a cult status throughout the rest of the United States.

Aaron, Peter, and Brian first played together while they were students at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, PA. Initially, Brian, Peter, and their drummer friend Greg Kulik briefly were part of a band called "The Salty Dogs." Later, these same three, along with Brian's brother Doug Ashby, formed the blues band Hurry Down Sunshine, which cut two CDs, the best of which, "Raw in Memphis" (recorded at Sun Studios and still available from Amazon), didn't feature Peter or Greg but did include some guitar solos by Brian Ashby.

Often appearing at Open-Mike Nights sponsored by Freedom High's literary-and-arts magazine PEN AND INK, Brian, Peter, and Aaron performed together in various combinations, sometimes covering Bowie tunes and sometimes (as "The Pants") featuring original songs often heavily influenced by Brian Wilson, Talking Heads, Bowie, and the Beatles. (In these early days, Mark Cunningham, their eighth-grade English teacher at East Hills Middle School, helped initiate their love of the above masters.)

[edit] Critical Reactions

A large variety of sources have praised the Teeth, including RJD2 in XLR8R Magazine [1], Rolling Stone Magazine[2], Jon Pareles in the New York Times [3], and Paste Magazine [4].