by Natalie Marlin (@NataliesNotInIt)
Guerilla Toss rarely stays still for long. You can tell this simply from looking at their discography, where they consistently dropped albums and EPs every year from 2012 to 2019. You can also tell in how their sound has evolved, hopping from the screechy noise rock of Gay Disco to the psychedelic jam rock of Twisted Crystal. If there’s one thing you can count on this band for, it’s unpredictability. Regardless of where they’ve gone before, it’s impossible to tell what they’ll do next—not just between releases, but track-to-track within an album as well.
Famously Alive, the group’s first album for Sub Pop, proves that in spades in the span of its 33 minute runtime alone. Though the record’s first run of three songs—also its pre-release singles—hint at a straightforward listen that filters the psych elements of previous album Twisted Crystal through a poppier approach, the rest of the album is anything but, revealing a band whose restlessness provokes ceaseless transformation the moment a new opportunity arises.
Deceptively enough, it’s Famously Alive’s opening sequence that primes the listener to be disarmed by the rest of the record. After “Cannibal Capital,” the title track, and “Live Exponential” seamlessly flow into each other right at the top, the album upends itself just as quickly as it had put itself together. That flow never returns, and each track becomes a hairpin turn in the sound of the record, keeping the listener on their toes with each new song. From “Mermaid Airplane” onward, Guerilla Toss begins leaning into the artificialities of their pop side even harder than before, finding the overlapping commonalities that make the catchiest psychedelic music and the most disorienting hyperpop kindred spirits. If there’s one common thread that connects all of Famously Alive, it’s Guerilla Toss diving headfirst into what makes the most oft-kilter pop just as spellbinding and erratic as the band’s own past sounds.
Even with the chaotic nature of the record, the strongest cuts from the album are the ones that feel like the most natural progressions from Guerilla Toss’ last releases. The band puts their best foot forward on opener “Cannibal Capital,” lending their distinctive guitar tones the one of the catchiest hooks of their career. “Wild Fantasy” chugs along with a formidable riff and marching percussion amid pulsing drum machines and cheerleading backing vocals. “I Got Spirit” especially stands out in the album’s constantly fluid back half by wedding the warped guitar work the band has become known for with Kassie Carlson autotuning her voice along psych-pop Charli XCX-esque cadences.
There’s never a moment where Guerilla Toss conforms to expectations, even when you feel like you have a solid grasp on the record. Take the late album cut “Excitable Girls” for instance: the track starts with a guitar lick that sounds like playback from a John Mellencamp tape left in the sun, melting as it’s coming through the speakers. Then the song pulls back the curtain to reveal a thumping synthetic surge along the same melody, and it becomes clear that the band isn’t content to even let a single song stay static the whole way through. At every turn on Famously Alive, Guerilla Toss proves they’re just as liable to entropy as ever before, even with the new crisp sounds at their disposal.