Have any idea what's going on in the above picture? No? Thought not. How about in this video?
Still no? Let me explain.
The band is called Gobble Gobble. I saw them at a warehouse party thrown by the Heart Music Group last week, and they put on single-handedly one of the most epic live shows I've ever seen. Their productions are also really good.
Describing their music is near impossible. I could say it's like putting the Killers through a beat slicer, a distortion pedal, and the "epic trance" preset on a synth. I could also say it's like a Motion City Soundtrack CD skipping after having been dipped in gooey indie goodness and sprinkled with little fragments of 8-bit video game music. Or I could call it indie-electronic-dance-pop-glitch-mindfuck. None of these descriptions would do them justice. So here are some songs that do:
Alabaster Bodyworld - Gobble Gobble
[REMOVED...so click the link above to see an AWESOME video of them live!!]
Undeniably a pop tune, but the production is incredibly detailed. The whole album is great, their sound ranges from super happy and poppy to a few more contemplative, piano-driven tracks (the beautiful "Ash Fountain" and "Eggs In Carrion"). There's even a few songs that remind me of Baths.
Boring Horror - Gobble Gobble
Love this track. Super-glitchy without losing that great poppy sound.
Eat Sun, Son - Gobble Gobble
SUPER UPTEMPO!! Not dancing to this was impossible. Sooooo catchy! This came free with the promo EP for this concert, released by the Heart Music Group; lots of other great songs on it, including unreleased stuff by Baths and Teen Daze, cop it here.
Their myspace page carries the slogan: "DIY or CRY." That pretty much captures the essence of their live show. Anything and EVERYTHING is used to make music. An impressive array of synths, mixers, circuit-bent puppets, and other electronic miscellany covers a table center stage, then down in front are a super eclectic drum/percussion set (frying pan included), a second mic with a lot of circuits and more random instruments, and lots of lights and wires.
See the guy in the upper-right-hand corner? In the fairy wings? That's Cecil Frena. He's apparently the guy behind all this awesomeness. And he's from Canada/the Bay Area. Which explains a lot. You'll see.
Well, he came out in those same fairy wings to start the show. He used a circuit-bent frog puppet to make weird noises, then played an intro. Then when the first real song dropped, in came three dudes in masks and skirts, wading through the crowd in a conga line. Like they were his fairy underlings or something. They took up shop in front of the stage, at various stations. One played drums and percussion, one seemed to be a synth-master, and the other had a MIDI controller or something. Though they changed those around a lot. Sometimes they had tambourines. Sometimes they had glowsticks and those plastic tubes that drone when you spin them in the air. And sometimes they would get up on stage and do synchronized dance moves.
Needless to say, the crowd went insane. And these were the same faithful head-nodding hipsters who had been swaying in rhythm to the more downtempo Baths and Teen Daze the whole night. Even Baths was in the mosh pit! That was fucking awesome to watch, he had told the audience to stay for Gobble Gobble after his set, and at first I thought this was just common courtesy, but no. He was totally into it. He was right there in the fucking mosh pit. And can you blame him?
The energy these dudes brought was insane. They make SUPER dancey pop music, but not without a real intelligence, in both their production and their lyrics. Frena's voice might be a bit too emo-pop for some of you, but I still highly recommend their music. At least see them live, it was a life-changer. Here are the dates for their Mobile Rave Infinitour 2010. Something like 160 shows, they're all over the country, JUST FUCKIN DO IT. I can't endorse them any more than that.
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