Straight White Teeth is the sprawling alternative music project of Patrick McGuire. Formed in Denver, Colorado in 2015 after the breakup of McGuire’s band Flashbulb Fires, Straight White Teeth leverages everything from startlingly intimate lo-fi folk to gauzy electronics to make songs about grief, longing, hope, depression, sex, spirituality, love––the endlessly complex and fascinating pursuit of what it means to be a feeling, conscious human being. With a wide collection of mostly self-produced and self-released songs that have only grown in output in recent years, Straight White Teeth is resigned to, and perhaps even a bit excited about, not knowing exactly what it is, where it's headed, and what it’s capable of as a vehicle for poetic music-making.
In 2015, Straight White Teeth shared two EPs: Medicine Sword, the project’s debut, and A Merciful, a dark and affecting collection of demos McGuire began writing in 2011. “Lifetime,” a synth-driven Straight White Teeth single released in 2017, charted up at #6 on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show in Los Angeles and helped earn the project a small but avid following. “Flowering” was shared a year later, a sparse and gorgeous track featuring only McGuire’s haunting baritone alongside finger-plucked acoustic accompaniment.
After multiple moves across the US taking the multi-instrumentalist from Philadelphia to rural New Mexico, the project’s debut album was released in 2019. Charming Pet GIFs is a flawed but memorable record exploring McGuire’s deep apprehension of social media and an interest in singularity bordering between fascination and fear. Two albums featuring minimal, organic instrumentation were released in 2021 and 2022, Costilla and Intimacy Coordinator, as well as music released by the Artlist Originals label, which has paired Straight White Teeth’s music with countless independent vlogs, podcasts, and other media.
Straight White Teeth released one EP in early 2023, and listeners can expect the project’s fourth LP later this year along with live performances in McGuire’s current home of Kansas City and throughout the United States.
