The Bret Tobias Set - Tuneless Blues [EP]

Tuneless Blues is the new EP from The Bret Tobias Set (release date: 2/13/26). It features five sonically disparate tracks telling tales of crises big and small, personal and national. It features the single, “Sepviva Shuffle,” which is, Bret explains, “the story of a sad middle-aged guy who blows up his life and retreats to the hip neighborhood he knew as a younger man to, against his better judgement, resume behaving like he did just before his proper adult life launched.” Despite the gloomy premise, it’s a bouncy, ramshackle number that would have been at home being sung by Ronnie Lane as the Small Faces contemplated dropping the adjective from their name. “Undo, Undo, Undo” is a vignette that updates Tess of the d’Urburvilles in under three minutes. “Happiness Writes White,” a chiming number about retraining oneself to recognize emotions besides negative ones, features a cameo from Marty Wilson-Piper of The Church.

Bret cut his teeth co-fronting the Bigger Lovers, a Philly guitar pop group that swung for the fences in the aughts. The Lovers got four stars from David Fricke in Rolling Stone, opened for Wilco, got panned in Pitchfork, recorded a World Cafe session and built a respectable fanbase one bespectacled dude at a time.

Bret re-emerged in 2023 with a set of sharply observed and somewhat dyspeptic contenders via the Pleaser EP. The Butter Valley Malcontent EP followed a year later.

Bret sings and plays guitar. Krista Umile sings and plays strings and keys. Mike Kennedy bangs drums. Jeff Tanner plays guitar. Tracy Stanton thumbs the bass.

The Bret Tobias Set has been plugged in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, had singles and videos premiered in Magnet, has been featured on several power-pop blogs (I Don’t Hear a Single, Power Popaholic, Pop Rock Record, etc.), was the focus of an episode of the 25 O’Clock podcast, and was interviewed in the Abominations blog.

The Bigger Lovers existed in a more easily demonstrable media landscape which included print music magazines and alt-weeklies that wrote thoughtful pieces about such combos. (see attached one sheet for past press)