Review of 'You're Weird Now' by Guerilla Toss

Guerilla Toss celebrate their weirdness on You’re Weird Now.

‘I came to party’ announces frontwoman Kassie Carlson on the first track of this album. This is a party album. But it’s not designed for your average party-goer. This is a party for all the proud freaks out there. It’s hosted by long-time weirdoes Guerilla Toss. Invited along to the party are fellow weirdoes Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and Trey Anastacio of Phish. The music is certainly danceable, as all good party music should be. But if you’re expecting Tate McCrae, you’re at the wrong party.

You’re Weird Now is the rock band’s fifth album. I’ve been a Guerilla Tosser (probably not the correct term for their fanbase) since 2015’s Eraser Stargazer and it’s been interesting to see the journey they’ve taken. Before 2015, they composed dissonant free jazz/punk tunes that were too weird even for me. It's when they found their sense of groove that I finally understood them, and they've preserved this funkiness ever since, while also gradually getting melodic and cleaning up their production. They almost ventured too far into pop territory on their last album Famously Alive, embracing autotune and sugary synths. You’re Weird Now sees them backpedalling a but, continuing to deliver machine-like drums and a mean infectiousness, but loosening the leash on their experimental side. The result is a signature cocktail of cartoonish synths, rubbery guitar grooves and yelping cheerleader vocals that’s as catchy and rhythmic as it is unpredictable and challenging. Sleigh-Bells-meets-Mr-Bungle-meets-Lydia-Lunch.

The party begins with four thrilling tracks. Opener ‘Krystal Ball’ seems to all be about the shining brilliance of being different (or at least that’s how I interpret the amazing line ‘lightning never strikes Elvis look-alikes’) and is centred around a killer driving riff. ‘Psychosis Is A Number’ is a mix of spidery basslines, skronky guitars and screwy trumpets that sound like they’re being played by a crazy clown. ‘CEO of Personal & Pleasure’ is a slower number with sinking synths that sound like the underwater level of a video game, and at points sounding a bit like a Mag Bay song. ‘Life’s A Zoo’ is meanwhile the zaniest track on the album – a song compared being a freak to being watched like a zoo animal that plays out like a trip through a carnival funhouse on acid (that section at 0:50 being when the drugs kick in).

The next three songs after this feel relatively subdued (I say relatively, because they’re each still quite strange and would stick out on any other artist’s album). Fifth track ‘Red Flag To Angry Bull’ is a piano rock ballad of sorts that opens with some queasy synths and features a singalong idiom-heavy chorus featuring Stephen Malkmus. ‘Panglossian Mannequin’ is a deranged disco song that briefly rocks out before settling into a hypnotic outro. ‘Deep Sight’ meanwhile features scum-rock band PC Worship and features some cool semi-whispered vocal harmonies in its verses (the closest Guerilla Toss comes to being seductive).

I expected the band to wind down the party in the final leg, but instead they end with three bonkers bangers. ‘When Dogs Bark’ and ‘Crocodile Cloud’ keep up the running theme of animal-oriented song tiles and they are both musically wild - the former stomps along to a lurching riff before rising up to a surprisingly glittery chorus, while the latter is a bouncy rock track with some hilarious deathcore screams that come out of nowhere. ‘Favorite Sun’ then closes the album by beckoning the listener to be ‘the prize, the alien, the favourite sun’, fading out to the accompaniment of a proggy off-kilter riff that sounds like it was composed on Mars.

All in all, it's an authentically weird album that refuses to slip into a single lull. If this is your first exposure to Guerilla Toss, you might get a little irritated by some of the yelping vocals and discordant melodies. But I personally have an itch for these moments that this album scratches. Only fellow weirdoes will understand.  

★★★★★

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