If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Juan Blanco Garcia Brooklyn's Gustaf have been blowing us away with their version of absurdly dance friendly post punk. The band's latest single, "The Motions," is a little bit more mellow, but it's still impossibly groovy. The song was inspired in part by Jonathan Richman's vocal delivery, which explains the laid back nature. It still has the bounce and fun of a B-52's song, but at the end it collapses in a cacophony of noise, much like The Dead Milkmen's "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything)." In a press release, vocalist Lydia Gammill discusses the song: "The song is about snapping between the perspective of your chaotic inner narrative while following the precut path of the world around you. Like when you’re strutting down the sidewalk to a song and your headphones slip off for a second to reveal the natural soundscape you’d been ignoring, realizing the world you had been wrapped up in is not the one shared by eve...

Photo by Felipe Torres We've been digging Gustaf for about a year now. The Brooklyn band's blend of infectious dance friendly post punk has been impossible to resist. Their latest single, "Best Behavior," changes up their formula a little. "Best Behavior" is more of a groovy, chilled out track. It's mid-tempo and maybe just a little too laid back to really dance to, but you're still going to be beckoned to move to it. It features Lydia Gammell speak singing over some disjointed funk almost like a bizarro world version of Tom Petty where he jammed with George Clinton and Gang of Four. Vocalist Lydia Gammell explains Gustaf's new song: " The song’s ethos is a bit of the old and the new attitude for Gustaf. Our narrator, the ‘ego slob’, is bargaining with itself, scrounging for self compassion and self assurance despite a pile of hurt feelings in its wake. In demanding spoils despite having done nothing to earn them, we see the initial cracks i...

Photo by Felipe Torres Late last year we brought you a pair of singles from Brooklyn based post punks Gustaf. The band recently announced a debut album and released a new single! "Book" is everything we loved about their previous releases. It's an absurdly upbeat and highly danceable version of post punk. It's more B-52's or DEVO than Gang of Four, but it still has a bit more of a punk edge to it while still being as pop as it possibly could be. "Book" is the kind of song that is making me long for packed divey clubs, because this song is going to be such a blast live. Singer Lydia Gammil explains the new song: " 'Book' is a song about the fallacy and fight of getting ahead vs being a head. It is seeking validation in the wrong places and from the wrong people.  The hook, “I got ahead, I got a head” is a fun little taunt that we find either being thrown in our face or coming out our mouth. Everyone gets their moment up on the pedestal and ev...

Photo by Adam Lempell You're going to thank me for introducing you to Gustaf. The Brooklyn based band have just released a new single, "Design." One of the immediate bands that are going to come to mind are their fellow Brooklynites Bodega, who they've also played shows with. Both bands play a version of funky, dance friendly post punk. One of the main differences in the bands is that "Design" feels darker. It's like if The B-52's decided to still be fun but went goth.  Vocalist Lydia Gammill says of the new song: "Although the title of the song is not the refrain ('desire’, we named the track 'Design' because it is a commentary on how our desires and critiques of others are a product of our design.  Like in 'Mine', the narrator addresses an invisible critic, arguing that the ills we believe to be unique to ourselves are the result of an oppressive system. However, in the end we're just shouting at the back of someone’s h...

Brooklyn's Gustaf have been playing sold out shows around the country despite not having any released any recorded music. That's now changed with the release of their debut single "Mine." "Mine" is a burst of groovy art-punk, like a more raw version of The Julie Ruin or if Bodega decided to be less of a party band. That's not to say that Gustaf aren't fun. There is plenty of humor in this song, and it's one of the most dance friendly post punk songs we've heard in months. But "Mine" is dripping with some of the most biting attitude of this year, which is saying a lot. Vocalist Lydia Gammill explains the new song: "This song is about having a false sense of entitlement. Someone who feels attacked or like they're being pushed out of their own world and not getting the credit they deserve. Someone with a delusional sense of self whose anger and frustration is humorous like the superintendent in a college frat movie. T he openi...