Guns N’Roses

MUSIC
MUSIC
The Gotobeds
Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic
Sub Pop, LP or CD
©Photo by Shawn Brackbill
Practitioners of pop music in 2016 largely all play nice with one
another. The ascension of destination festivals—the Coachellas,
Lollapaloozas, and Bonnaroos of the world—has broken down
genre walls. Acts that were once polar opposites—with punk,
indie, and alternative on one side, and mainstream, chart-toppers,
and bubblegum on the other—now share bills. Today, Guns N’
Roses, Rancid, and Calvin Harris can all appear on the same
poster, like dogs, cats, and birds living harmoniously in a single
home. Pittsburgh’s Gotobeds, however, don’t seem keen on
joining the we’re-all-happy-together vibe. Choppy, abrasive, and
sarcastic, they recall an era when punk rock zines like Maximum
Rocknroll weren’t simply reading material but a way of life.
“Commercial bands make
songs for commercial use,” singer-guitarist
Eli Kasan snarls amid
the stop-and-start stomp of “Crisis
Time,” a song that slams Taylor
Swift, praises feminist music
writers, and briefly references the
Clash’s “White Man (In Hammersmith
Palais).” Guitars run in multiple
directions—imagine the sound
of emergency-vehicle sirens blaring
from every path of traffic—and
rhythms are borderline militaristic.
All of it coalesces into a formidable,
locked-in melody near song’s
end before dissolving again.
The track even takes swipes
at indie fans. Indeed, the Gotobeds
don’t appear too interested
in making friends. Further evidence
of the confrontational approach:
The band goes by such
monikers as “Hazy” and “Depressed
Adult Male” in the album
credits. But anger can be power,
and if one doesn’t mind some
out-of-date jabs at mass media
like Rolling Stone, the Gotobeds
show there’s plenty of fury left in
the guitar-bass-drums formula,
especially in the guitars of Kasan
and Tom Payne.
Wiry, serrated, and distorted,
the two instruments engage in
call-and-response taunting on
“Real Maths / Too Much” while a
kiss-off becomes celebratory on
“Bodies,” on which a high-pitched
solo counters Kasan’s snarl. The
latter stands as the most melodic
work on the record, yet for the
most part, the Gotobeds opt for
constrained recklessness over
hooks. Reference points sit comfortably
in the late 70s and early
80s. Post-punk bands like Wire,
whose drummer Robert “Gotobed”
Grey inspired the group’s
name, stand as ground zero for
the quartet. And even as the
band remains at the ready to take
swings at others, new ground
isn’t the priority as much as genre
mastery.
On this, the band’s debut for
Seattle indie Sub Pop, there’s also
some kinship with more contemporary
rock acts such as Protomartyr,
an aggressive Detroit outfit with a
gloomier worldview. Protomartyr’s
gruff-voiced singer Joe Casey even
guests on “Why’d You?” “Style isn’t
style if what you’re buying is style,”
Kasan barks on the track, on
which the vocalists circle around
each other and drummer Cary Belback
keeps the momentum moving
forward. Things slow down on
“Red Alphabet,” letting Gavin Jensen’s
predatory bass build the tension,
and “Glass House” becomes
a glimmering, patiently building
sing-along. A keyboard makes an
appearance, but something slightly
sinister lurks in its single-punched
notes.
“What do you do for fun?” the
band shouts, less a question and
more a challenge. The group isn’t
looking for an answer as much as
it is a fight. —Todd Martens
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TONE AUDIO NO.78
AUGUST 2016 45