Not enough albums make you want to drink beer, sing and dance with your friends, thankfully The Gotobeds do just that with Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic. And yet opening track ‘Real Maths/Too Much’ threatens to be a mid-paced opening to the record, until a screeching guitar and four drum clicks later and the beer is thrown in the air and everybody is jumping around.
Lead single ‘Brash Not Rash’ continues in a similar vein, brilliantly raucous, energetic, and fun. On such tracks it’s hard not to draw comparisons with The Strokes at their most exciting, on Is This It.
However, The Gotobeds are certainly no glib tribute act, and stand apart from the crowd thanks to the vocal delivery of Eli Kasan (also known as Hazy Lazer – not enough frontmen have aliases as cool as that). Kasan sings, screams, and shouts in an enthralling disregard for sticking to any obvious melody.
The Pittsburgh quintet, signed to the icnonic Seattle record label Sub Pop, do eventually slow things down on tracks such as ‘Rope’ and ‘Red Alphabet’, which offer a nice breather before concluding with a frantic finish.
As Kasan pointed out in a recent interview with Spin, The Gotobeds’ strength is their live performances, and the whirlwind album reflects that. Although while the songs have a shambolic energy – Kasan admits the band can be a “fucking train wreck” – the band are still impressively tight performers. Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic is one of the most fun train wrecks for a while, quite frankly.
‘Blood // Sugar // Sec // Traffic’ is released 10 June via Sub Pop Records.
Rob Conlon
@robconlon25
Rob Conlon
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