The band described “Black Tooth” as “two minutes and thirty seconds of music to rob banks to.” Hearing it in all of its garage rock glory, it’s hard to disagree. Talking about the narrator’s sleep and dental issues, “Black Tooth” comes out of the gate fast before settling on an infectious, danceable groove. Despite being a rarity in the modern day, the song was the band’s first real introduction to the public and their first taste of success.
Before a performance on 2022-10-02, Ambrose said Stu came up with the riff and introduced it to the band at the studio. “I still remember the day coming into the studio, walking in and Stu was wearing a blue singlet and he stunk of goon — goon is like a wine sack in Australia. He had all, like food stains on him, he’s like ‘got this riff! Goes really fast and then it slows down!’” “Black Tooth” was released as the first single for Willoughby’s Beach on June 7th 2011. This single was a breakthrough moment for the band.
Triple J DJ Dom Alessio would call the band “a tour de force of reverberated rock’n’roll” following its release, and the song would see rotation on Australian community/public radio. Their 2011 tour would even be dubbed the “Black Tooth tour”. The song was released on Willoughby’s Beach on October 21st, 2011. In the following year it made an appearance on the TV show Private Practice during the season five episode “Drifting Back.” It would also be used in a promotional video for the band’s 2018 vinyl reissues.
A music video for the song was released on Eric’s YouTube Channel (now King Gizzard’s) on June 8th, 2011 and shows two elephants with filters mirroring the footage, reversing it occasionally and shifting the color balance. While the creator of the video is left uncredited in the video’s description, it was posted to Syd Row’s Facebook page, indicating that they may have made it.
The song was reportedly played on 2011-08-19 at The Esplanade Hotel in Naarm (Melbourne), but the first confirmed performance would be on 2011-10-17 at PBS Studios in Naarm (Melbourne) during a full performance of Willoughby’s Beach. The song would be in heavy rotation for 2012 and remained with the band for occasional performances going forward into 2013-2015. After a performance on 2015-09-13 at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia, the song would take a long break before reappearing at the Princess Theatre on 2021-12-22 for “Garage Rock Night.”
Since then “Black Tooth” has appeared on a few rare occasions and has even gotten an update. 2024 introduced a new ending where the band gradually speeds up. While the first instance on 2024-08-31 went fast only to stop dead in its tracks, the second on 2024-11-09 saw an incredibly rare transition into “Iron Lung.” This is the only known instance where “Black Tooth” has led into another song.
