Gucked Up falls under the category of debut albums that come out fully formed due to the fact that between each of its five creators, they probably have several lifetimes of experience in various music scenes. Fronted by former Sprain bassist April Gerloff, and featuring Chappy Hull of Gnarwhal, Shell of a Shell, Pile (for a few years, at least), and probably dozens of other mathy and/or noisy punk outfits, Guck is a chaotic art-punk blend of futuristic dance-punk and old-school sasscore heavily incorporating buzzing industrial synths and a particularly rowdy vocal turn from Gerloff that runs the gamut from post-punk monotony to piercing screams inspired by noise-making forebears like Melt-Banana.
Above all, though, Guck serves as an unlikely vessel for its members to recalibrate following periods of creative tumult. “I had a falling out with music as a whole in my late twenties,” confesses Hull, who initiated the project three years ago upon moving to LA and meeting bassist Andrew Morrill and drummer Kyle Bray—and later, synth player Sam Rogich. “I knew I still loved it, but couldn’t find myself in it anymore. To me, making this album and seeing what the five of us could do reinvigorated the lust I’ve always had to not only create, but fully enjoy the thing most important to me. Gucked Up may have come together with no particular idea or end goal in mind other than generally creating something, but the end product feels like an encapsulation of the anxieties, troubles, and sometimes triumphs we all feel.”
Similarly, Gerloff seemed eager to reinvent herself after Sprain combusted almost immediately after releasing one of our favorite albums of 2023. “This album, for me, is figuring out how to put myself out there without an instrument to hide behind,” she shares. “I think for us as a band, it’s about making all the chaos fit together and rebuilding out of it. There’s a mentality that’s more like, ‘Hmm, I’m sure we can find use for this,’ even if a motif can be challenging to incorporate or communicate. I think we all appreciate that challenge and embrace it as part of our democratic approach to songwriting… I’m pretty sure I’ve always wanted a band like this, or at least since I first heard The Blood Brothers or The Locust.”
In something of a full-circle moment, Gucked Up drops tomorrow via Three One G, the label founded by The Locust’s Justin Pearson. You can check out an early stream of the project below, and pre-order it here.
