The Gobs

Reviews

The Gobs Go Soft / Pop Off EP

My initial thought seeing this single was “Wow, a Goodbye Boozy band with songs that run longer than two minutes?” Took me a minute-and-a-half to realize that this isn’t a single at all; the A and B-sides are just two different EPs. More lo-fi, synth-driven egg-punk that we’ve come to expect from this label. However, each song has a different vibe to it. There’s a diverse range of gear used on each track, specifically the different drum machines featured throughout. The GOBS bounce back and forth between sounding like PRISON AFFAIR, ’90s dream pop, and sinister darkwave. Really freshens things up and keeps them from sounding like the hundreds of other egg bands out there right now.

The Gobs 1-2-3-4! cassette

Straight outta rockin’ Olympia, we get this collection of the first four demos (hence the title, get it?) of this synthy, catchy pogo party band that’s forever going to suffer the SPITS comparison. I tried to find some live footage or something to give them a personality of their own as they definitely deserve it. They’re like a nicer SPITS that you’d take to your mom’s house, and with all the same influences like the NUBS, DEVO, RAMONES, etc. (but maybe if they’d never listened to GG). It’s really a great tape and very much worthy of your time, though. Hope they make it to NYC someday. Good work.

Ex-White / The Gobs split EP

Turbo Discos, a cool new label out of Germany, aims to please. You all were clamoring for more split 7”s, so that’s what they’re delivering! That’s right—with their fourth vinyl release, they’re giving you two sides, two bands, two songs apiece. But bad format aside, this thing absolutely smokes! I think it helps that these two bands are so sonically similar—like, if you didn’t know any better, you’d probably just assume all these songs were coming from the same band. Both play blistering punk with a sci-fi, dum-dum edge. It’s loose, it’s noisy, it’s great. EX-WHITE, a four-piece out of Germany, play things a little more straight, with a couple of REATARDS-esque burners, while the GOBS, an act out of Olympia, WA, crank out two murky, SPITS-ophrenic numbers. So good it left me wanting more! Like maybe a couple more songs apiece…split over two releases…with each act getting their own 7”.