Way Out West: Goon
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FFO: Built to Spill, Cage the Elephant, Strange Ranger
Goon is the band that makes the soundtrack to your early-twenties summer. You know, when you spend your one sacred day off of your dead end job at the river, or the beach, or doing whatever traditional youth summertime activity you’ve chosen. When you drive around at dusk with your friends and stay out late drinking too many shitty beers. Goon’s brainchild Kenny Becker writes with a familiar anxiety that I myself and I’m sure many others can identify with. Showcasing the duality of the “punk band” Goon covers everything from the catchy upbeat poppy tune in “Green Peppers”, to the fuzzy lofi lazy grunge number “Dizzy”, even going as far as to gracefully cover the folkier side of things in “Slab Roller”. Every track on their debut EP Dusk of Punk offers something different, yet all of the tracks have a clear cohesiveness.
This can be attributed to Becker’s unique and distinct vocals. Quite simply put, there isn’t a popular punk trope this band can’t do, and when they do do it, they do it well. I can attest to the fact that this is one of those bands that only gets better when performing live. I was first impressed by them in a dim lit basement this past weekend, on the Portland stop of their current west coast tour. I was pleasantly surprised when I went home, dug through the internet for their Bandcamp, and found that the very same crazy energy they embody live; the energy that had me in awe, was conveyed in their recordings. Good is the band you’ll see in a basement when you’re in your early twenties, but by your mid-twenties, I’m sure they’ll be playing Sasquatch or Riot Fest or whatever the “festival the trying-too-hard early thirties crowd is going to so they can feel young and hip” is by then. So watch the frick out.
Check them out on the remainder of their current west coast tour with Young Jesus
Find them on
-Delaney|@loser513
