Guerilla Toss – ‘You’re Weird Now’ album review: Thankfully, as bizarre as ever
Let’s get one thing out of the way here: if an album has Stephen Malkmus involved, it’s hardly going to be run of the mill. Throw New York-based dance-punks Guerilla Toss into the same equation, and it’s a recipe for unbridled chaos.
Over the course of the last 15 years, the quintet have released a string of genre-ambivalent records that have touched on no-wave, synth-punk, art rock and psychedelia, and if that sounds like something of an overstimulating hodgepodge of ideas, that’s because it is. Guerilla Toss have never once compromised upon their peculiarity on record, and when you’re so unaverse to experimenting with different elements, then why on earth would you ever cease to let that weirdo flag fly?
You’re Weird Now is the second release that the band have put out on Sub Pop, and their fifth album proper overall, but their ability to confound has been present since long before their 2016 debut Eraser Stargazer. 2013 mini-album Gay Disco is abrasive and jarring from the opening seconds, constantly fidgeting between sludgy funk basslines, taut drum grooves and playing in whatever time signature or tempo feels right in the moment.
To say that that’s all but gone on their newest release is not to say that they’ve ‘toned it down’, per se, but rather that they’ve managed to streamline the more maniacal aspects of their work in ways that are less likely to induce headaches in listeners less well-travelled in the worlds of totalist noise rock. Having someone like Malkmus – arguably ‘the people’s weirdo’ – taking the reins on production, means that it’s still going to be strange, but it’s a different flavour of strange. You’re Weird Now is a raspberry and asparagus smoothie next to Gay Disco’s unicorn vomit custard, if you will.
Frontwoman Kassie Carlson doesn’t shriek as much as she used to on earlier records, and has begun to treat her vocals as a vehicle for bratty playground chant melodies rather than another layer of atonal mess, and as the instrumentation and production on their records has become glossier, it’s made the songs on them more vibrant and welcoming, rather than intimidatingly obtuse. Their earliest output was no doubt thrilling, but considerably less jovial in its delivery, and now these bursts of pop synths against scratchy and jagged riffs makes it all the more of a delight rather than a turnoff.
Opener ‘Krystal Ball’ and the follow-up, ‘Psychosis is Just a Number’ are the band in a nutshell, but we quickly move onto singles like ‘CEO of Personal & Pleasure’ and ‘Red Flag to Angry Bull’, both of which are full of Malkmusisms (the early 2010s Jicks kind, not Pavement ones) and display a strong desire for catchiness. Both ‘Life’s a Zoo’ and ‘Crocodile Cloud’ are seemingly pulled from the PS1 racing simulation soundtrack playbook of throwing cutesy yet maniacal synth flourishes over the top of high-bpm rhythms, and it’s frankly nothing but a thrill-a-second ride.
There are some more subdued moments where the band lock into a groove rather than aim to speed through things, and on the two longest tracks, ‘Panglossian Mannequin’ and ‘Favorite Sun’, they’re considerably less adamant on startling unexpecting listeners. This is all very well, and they add to the flow of the album in that they prevent it from being too crazed for its own good, but at the same time, the band are probably at their best when taking the all guns blazing approach.
You probably shouldn’t ever go into a Guerilla Toss record expecting them to play things safe or offer comfort, but somehow, they’ve managed to make their most accessible record to date while still maintaining an approach that is, quite frankly, bonkers in an unparalleled manner.
Defining track – ‘Psychosis is Just a Number’: It’s the closest thing to their early work on the record, but here, their no-wave guitars, bass and sax all interlock to create a disarming yet riotously fun development on what would previously have been a deliberately monstrous onslaught.
For fans of: Intense sugar rushes, John Kilduff’s Let’s Paint TV, and staring directly into strobe lighting.
A concluding comment from a day one Guerilla Toss fan: “I’ve always been weird, buddy.”
Release Date: September 12th | Producer: Stephen Malkmus | Label: Sub Pop
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