Appetite is the solo recording project of Sacramento-area musician Teddy Briggs, who is also the drummer of the band What's Up?[1] Appetite's music has been described as hard-to-define "weird pop-folk" and experimental pop drawing on tropicalia and indie-stomp textures.[1][2] Briggs grew up in Los Angeles — making Appetite a transplant project rather than a native Sacramento act — and relocated to Sacramento, where he worked at Beers Books.[3]
At a glance
- Solo project of Teddy Briggs, drummer of What's Up?[1]
- Briggs is an LA transplant; project is embedded in the Sacramento/Davis scene[3]
- Debut album The Ambiguous Garment released on local label Obstructive Vibrations (recorded 2008)[1][4]
- Second album Scattered Smothered Covered produced/recorded by Raleigh Moncrief; self-released on Bandcamp (2010) then officially issued by Davis's Crossbill Records on August 16, 2011[1][5][4][6]
- Scattered Smothered Covered placed No. 6 on Submerge's Top 20 of 2011[2]
Origin and local status
Appetite is fronted by Teddy Briggs, who is a drummer by trade and the drummer of What's Up?, but who plays nearly all of the instruments himself on Appetite recordings.[1] Submerge explicitly identifies Briggs as a "local musician," and his project is embedded in the Sacramento/Davis music ecosystem: its label, collaborators, and live band are all drawn from the regional scene.[5] On that basis Appetite is classified as local.
Briggs grew up in Los Angeles, not Sacramento, making Appetite a transplant project. According to the Sacramento News & Review, Briggs was a Beers Books employee in Sacramento at the time Appetite was active.[3] His Los Angeles upbringing gave him early musical connections: he attended high school with Jason Schwartzman — drummer of Phantom Planet — and at age 16 opened for Phantom Planet at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.[3] Before forming Appetite, Briggs also drummed for Rooney for approximately one year.[4]
The moniker's irony — a project about being "over food" named "Appetite" — is acknowledged by Briggs as unintentional; he has described having a "weird relationship with food," treating eating as fuel and a chore.[1]
Releases timeline
- The Ambiguous Garment (debut) — recorded in 2008 while Briggs was living in Sacramento,[4] released on Obstructive Vibrations, a local label run by Briggs's What's Up? bandmate Robby Moncrieff. Moncrieff recorded the record, gave studio guidance, and shopped it to labels. Briggs has characterized this early material as more freak-folk and "ambition-less," a "weirdo introduction" done for fun.[1] The album was later re-released on Bandcamp under the Appetite name.[4][7]
- Scattered Smothered Covered — Briggs's more mature second album, recorded in five days at Hangar Studios with nearly all instruments played by Briggs.[1] The title comes from Southern hash-brown slang Briggs learned from a friend at breakfast in San Francisco.[1] He initially self-released it on Bandcamp the day of his release show, selling CD-Rs, after declining to wait for a label deal.[1] It was produced and recorded by Raleigh Moncrief.[5][8]
- Official Crossbill release (August 16, 2011) — Briggs signed with Davis-based Crossbill Records (label of Sea of Bees and Jake Mann + the Upper Hand) to officially release Scattered Smothered Covered. The official version was released on August 16, 2011.[4][6] The official release was re-mixed, with some tracks re-recorded or augmented, two new tracks added, the track order rearranged, and a third "bonus" song on the digital edition — totaling 10 tracks on vinyl/CD and 11 on download.[5]
The album was a critical highlight locally, landing at No. 6 on Submerge's Top 20 of 2011 and described as a "rich, dense album that's nearly impossible to define."[2]
Live band
For the Crossbill release, Briggs assembled a new live lineup of "familiar Sacto music scene contributors": Carson McWhirter (Everybody) and Jesse Phillips (Ellie Fortune) on guitar, Addison Quarles (Chelsea Wolfe) on bass, and Sam Coe (Sea of Bees) on drums.[5] Because Briggs recorded everything himself, he described adjusting to hearing others play his songs as an awkward, "toned-down Brian Wilson" feeling, while declining to pressure bandmates into formal commitment.[1]
Scene relationships
Appetite is closely tied to producer Raleigh Moncrief, a renowned Sacramento producer who recorded the Appetite record alongside work for Ganglians, Cuckoo Chaos, and Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca.[8] Portland band BRAINSTORM cited Moncrief's production on Scattered Smothered Covered (alongside Ganglians' Still Living) as an example of his ability to make pop recordings "more interesting," and noted a "sister community" relationship between Sacramento and Portland scenes.[9] Appetite also appeared among 20 locally tied bands on the Sac Go Home Fest live compilation, recorded at the Midtown venue Witch Room (ex-Bows and Arrows) before its late-2014 closure.[10]
After Appetite
Following Appetite, Briggs went on to drum for several acts including Water Slice, Gardens & Villa, and Jerry Paper. He also became half of the songwriting and recording duo Errand Boys.[7]