Goon has covered plenty of ground over the course of 10 years, two LPs, and several EPs, from psychedelic slacker rock to dreamy noise pop. Their latest single from their upcoming third album Dream 3 demonstrates that broad spectrum they tend to inhabit in under five minutes, as “Patsy’s Twin” jumps between the neo-shoegaze explored by experimental groups like Spirit of the Beehive and They Are Gutting a Body of Water before pivoting to chaotic noise-rock and straight-up screamo on the pounding-guitar choruses.
“I was excited by the idea of writing a song that felt like it was two or three different songs cut and pasted together with essentially no transitional elements to smooth the edges,” shares band leader Kenny Becker, who notes that this mismatching charm also played into the song’s lyrics (not to mention the imagery he painted for the album’s cover, as he points out). “The first half of the song was born out of the pain of heartbreak and a meditation on just hanging out outside with friends.”
Regarding the track’s title, he also mentions another prominent duality within the song: the two Tonys central to the lyrics. “Though I live in LA, I grew up in San Diego and am a devoted fan of the Padres. The mythic and legendary legacy of Tony Gwynn was always something I thought would be fun to reference in a song, and I ended up doing that side-by-side with another beloved Tony, Tony Soprano. The other verse in that section is about my own struggle to write, and in that case, referring to the song itself. Our good friend Braden Lawrence played drums on this song, but Andy Polito (who drums on most of the record) came up with the name, a reference to the Sopranos character Patsy, whose twin was killed by Tony.”
A Gwynn jersey and the “hanging out outside with friends” thing both populate the music video, which also features plenty of imagery from Dream 3’s album artwork imposed over the footage. Check it out below, and pre-order the record here ahead of its July 11 release. You can also grab tickets for Goon’s upcoming shows alongside labelmates Preoccupations here.
