This posthumus double EP from The Goochi Boiz may be their final vinyl document. Turns out the three dudes that recorded both sides of this at different times four years ago have since moved on to different cities and projects. Windian has put together the ultimate tribute with two separate EP's separated by a year on both sides. Moving chronologically start with the "'Oops!" side recorded in Oakland in 2011 released on Burger Records and then move on to 2012's "Fast Food for a Teenage Soul" recorded in one week in Brattleboro, VT where band member Francis Carr is also a part of The Happy Jawbone Family Band which in retrospect is going to explain a lot.
This is the schizophrenic record of a close friendship that resulted in manic burst of creativity. A rare thing when it results in something as enjoyably goofy and pop as this. They experiment every other track, moving from hyper garage to laid back, ramshackle sludge pop. You could imagine the roller coaster of these frantic sessions everything coming together at once, hardly able to sleep afraid you might lose something forever.
The 'oops! side recorded in Oakland (while the neighbors got more and more annoyed, the liner notes say) starts with "Gimme What I want" and a rough chord structure with a great vocal from the Boiz singing as deep as possible alongside a high falsetto. If it weren't for this oddball vocal you might mistake this for a serious deep groove taken from southern '70s rock. "Freak Magnet" brings things into a '60s garage and chord structure if you blasted it through a broken PA from a block away. This pace brings something to the sound, the vocals are one take and the scuzzy pedal is all bass like a slow grinding underwater drill. "Boca Italia" must be the track those neighbors were complaining about. They couldn't be recording a hit record? How they could capture this racket? The lows are just as fuzzy as these highs, singing in a snotty monotone with always great lyrics, completely loose and free with a tight Matthew Melton pop structure, never longer than it should be. "Bummer in the Summer" like Sebadoh or The Jacuzzi Boys this could all fall apart any second. It's the sound of saying "fuck it" and managing to get that good take in spite of themselves. "Banana Split" gets into obnoxious "wooooooo's" as high as possible with a wink. They know this is ridiculous and they'll have the best time doing it at the loudest volume they can manage to jam into the tape. I'll take this attitude over the self serious punk world where everything sucks and we're going to kick your ass because you're straight edge or not whatever the fuck. It feels like the garage equivalent of The Unicorns, writing catchy half hilarious tracks that have a sense of humor. "Flashflood" gets instrumental with a slow ominous baseline, until they yell "FLASHFLOOD!" and it's the perfect sort of example I'm talking about, completely silly and awesome. They aren't afraid to be goofy and almost make you have a great time listening to it. So many tracks, you can't even absorb the last thing before you're spinning to the next. They doom themselves to a certain kind of failure because they make a record this goofy. These guys don't have the self promotion or business sense to push themselves on the world because if they did they wouldn't be able to create this. "oh yea /oh yea /oh yea / big hole!" your guess is as good as mine. "This guns for hire" - the sound of a gunshot fires into loud scuzz and there's a lot of Jay Reatard in here too, at least the Blood Visions stuff which was raw around the edges, plowed into a tascam on their own, an equal scream into the void when maybe no one is listening - you can get a sound like this. "Shroud of night" wraps up this fantastic collection only to be topped by the second side where the goof spreads into a few more genres beyond this Nobunny shine.
The Fast Food for a Teenage Soul side opens with "Dilettante" with bouncy handclap induced energy that sounds like it's spinning fast even though it's most definitely on 33. This sprints like Hunx and the Punx tapping into extreme bubblegum snot. It's a perfect sound for this character, exactly how she would want her song, shiny and sweet vomit. The Goochi Boiz are taking their mix seriously with this punchy chorus, stirring up a real muddy mess and the stage is the only thing to tear them away from this party. "Vietnam" is classic fast Ramones, sounding like a cover with fast ripping chords and explosion samples and the band screaming in pain - a direction those forest hills punks would never go being a little too serious and awkward sometimes. They wrangled some massive kettle drums on "Why You Gotta be Mean to Me?" or it's the biggest tuned down tom with slow drone lyrics. Like a Randy Records release, the band's all singing in the background having had a few too many by the end of this session and the beat can barely keep it together in the best way. It's the sound of the middle of the afternoon in summer and its too hot to move. Don't forget the tiniest toy piano solo that says "Time is going by too fast" and why you gotta be so damn serious everywhere else in your damn life? "You're Melting" is drumming with pieces of cardboard with crazy energy again because they can't stick to a formula, changing minute to minute. They do keep coming back to this spazzy snotty harmony sound as soon as they get into a downer junk blues track like "Everything I do is Wrong". Like one of those sloppy songs on One Foot in The Grave they're ok with putting these tracks under a microscope and giving you a tiny middle finger. "Stewin in my Juices" has a great pop punk feel and I'm starting to think of this record like some kind of alternate reality Pure Guava. It's got all the same kind of weird collaborative qualities and inside jokes and bonkers sounds like the ones in this piece after the chorus; a siren of synth and broken electronics. "Neon Brain Splatter" is another one of those monotone punk tracks played by people who have some idea of punk but miss the entire target in their own deliberate way with everything landing on the beat like a trio of frankensteins. I think the track "Dill Pickles" is a sped up recording of the Who or some other washed up dad rock in the way that it says we're moving on old man. Kill your idols. This is what your rock sounds like totally ruined. "Something's Missing" gets back to the frantic proceedings with great lyrics, the whole band singing, in and out of harmony, the guitars racing, almost stumbling over the cymbal crashes and barely keeping up with itself. An amazing snapshot that deserves revisiting over and over, the reach of material covered here shouldn't even be attempted and rarely comes together like this.
Get it from Windian Records, who says:
A THREE-PIECE ORIGINALLY FROM BOULDER, CO FEATURING MEMBERS OF THE HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND, THEE GOOCHI BOIZ WERE WELL KNOWN FOR THEIR FRANTIC & FRENETIC LIVE SHOWS. WHILE SADLY ON AN INDEFINITE HIATUS AFTER TREVVOR, THOMAS AND FRANCIS MOVED ON TO OTHER PROJECTS AND LOCATIONS, WINDIAN RECORDS WON'T LET THAT STOP YOU FROM ENJOYING THESE REMASTERED TRACKS AVAILABLE ON OUR FAVORITE FORMAT FOR THE FIRST TIME .
No comments:
Post a Comment