Gob returns from the undead with new album and sound
By Cristina Naccarato
Lance Writer
January 28, 2009
 Remember getting home from school, flipping on MuchMusic, and rocking out to Gob’s music video for “I Hear You Calling” and wishing you were one of those killer soccer-playing zombies?
Okay, so maybe that was just my childhood fantasy, but anyone who watched MuchMusic as religiously as I did will definitely know exactly which video I’m talking about.
Gob formed in Langley British Colombia in 1994, and despite a few set backs here and there, they have been going strong since.
They’ve slowly moved away from the pop-punk sound they started out with and are taking on a bit more edgy and aggressive punk rock tone.
They released their newest album Muertos Vivos in 2007, after quite a time-stretch since their previous album Foot in Mouth Disease in 2003.
Lead singer, Tom Thacker explained, “A lot of things happened, we replaced our bass player, left our management company. That whole time we were writing, but all of those things take time. Some of the songs have been written maybe a year after our previous record, but with everything, it just took a long time to produce the record. There was a lot of stuff going on, it just took a long time for the record to get out.”
You can notice a progressive change in their sound within this album, in comparison to their older work.
Thacker added, “If you listen to every single one of our records the sound changes. It’s not a linear change. The first record was really typical punk rock, where the second was a lot angrier and faster. Sometimes the change is conscious, sometimes it isn’t. This one definitely wasn’t. We basically picked the songs over a five-year span of song writing. Everything affects an artist, things that they like, and don’t like push them in a direction that influences the art that they make.”
In respect to their newest album, that has takes on a Spanish title: “All the songs touch on death in one way or another. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious idea to do that, but we really wanted this album to be more of a stream of consciousness than looking at every song and having an idea of every song and writing it. We just wanted to say whatever we feel like saying.”
With the idea of death in mind, Thacker added, “It’s not negative ideas of death. Dead living. Dead alive. A juxtaposition of the two words. I’ve also been a fan of Day of the Dead artwork and just the whole idea of the Latin American celebration of the dead. It’s a very interesting and healthy way of looking at it. Celebrating people who were once alive.”
What’s particularly interesting about Gob’s new album are all of the connections that they’re creating within the themes in their songs, as well as the themes they’re carrying through their music videos.
Their first two singles off Muertos Vivos, “We’re All Dying” and “Underground,” feature a group of men wearing white body suits, acting as a juxtaposition of the living dead. The new video for “Banshee Song” is the opposite, completely in silhouette, almost a mirror image of what you’re seeing from the first two videos.
When asked what the future of Gob looks like, Thacker joked that he and his long-time friend and band-mate, Theo will, “continue making music, we just don’t plan on being friends anymore. Strictly business between us. We’ll still be kickin’ out the jams.”
You can check out Gob Wednesday, Jan. 28 with special guests The Johnstones (who will be getting into the studio to record their sophomore full-length album after their tour with Gob) at The Basement, located in the basement of the CAW Student Center in The University of Windsor.
|
