The Gotobeds: Masterclass

The Gotobeds are one-offs. Dry, brusque, tongue-in-cheek underground anthems that are largely lost in the sanitised world where metrics and mediocrity rule at large, the Pittsburgh punk juggernaut, consisting of Eli Kasan (vocals/ guitar), Tom “TFP” Payne (guitar), Gavin Jensen (bass) and Cary Belback (drums), have spent their existence hitting a frequency few others have found.

It’s one of the main reasons why they aren’t celebrated more. That fine line where punk and indie-rock sit, tenuous with little margin for error that defines good and bad; however, The Gotobeds nail the former by illuminating reality. The civic vitality of their native Pittsburgh, peaking through in their songs with blue-collar grit, harnessing the same intensity as underground rock alumni Bottomless Pit and Silkworm before them. (Incidentally, Tim Midyett authored the bio to The Gotobeds latest release, Masterclass.)

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It’s a world away from the glitz and glamour of rock ’n’ rock – an all but dead ideal despite many still trying to chase that empty dream – but it’s this fuel that has been the fire to The Gotobeds’ remit. The metallic flash of Masterclass’ opening gambit, Starz, a perfect example, and one where a straight line can be drawn to their 2016 cut, Crisis Time, where Kasan sprayed venom at a modern world including those “commercial bands” who “make songs for commercial uses … buying their look from a store.” There’s plenty more of that venom on Masterclass, a no-holds-barred take-down where The Gotobeds go down swinging while taking the rest of us down with them.

It’s not just their fellow contemporaries, either. On the elastic psych rock of the John Fante-inspired Fante, the band gives the two-finger salute to critics with no taste, and you know what? Fair enough. In a system of snake oil PRs and vanity projects, it’s a facet of this ‘job’ that makes you hurl projectiles across the room in rage. The bruising tale of Hey John! is another stinger in such realms, as Kasan bristles about the protagonist’s entitlement (“I’ll tell you about a man who’s not worth reading / But a man whose song for this was wrote”).

Elsewhere, Goes Away and All Leaves Turn (the latter, a nod to fellow kindred spirits Unwound), is The Gotobeds at their rifling best. Those moments where a band has a knack of pulling down the mind lever that unlocks the untamed spirits within, underlining that inexplicable reason why one falls in love with music in the first place. The gnarled blues-rock of Face Down and Non-Fucking Fiction are of a similar ilk, too, as TFP’s riffs hum across the razor wire, and backed by Jensen’s ballooning bass lines and Belback’s frantic drums, it’s The Gotobeds making the kind of glorious racket that folds you in two.

Unlike Abasement, which is The Gotobeds in freewheeling mode (“Motherfucker I can’t help you”), and it leads to the seminal Second Sight. As the band dials it down (“Sometimes I never tell, what you do to me / Like you didn’t know”), it’s here where one can really get into the mechanics of what The Gotobeds are all about. A closer listen where you can hear the gears grinding, making Second Sight Masterclass’ centrepiece.

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The quick-silver assault of Mirror Writing equally frames The Gotobeds experience. A a purity of punk dispensed by lifers who always knew that the rock ’n’ roll paradigm was a sham, and the only way to succeed in culture relevance is by creating something that will forever sit outside of it. Even as Kasas sings “I don’t know where I would go” on Mirror Writing, he actually does, and it’s this reason why The Gotobeds are one of the true outlier punk acts of our generation.

As the arts are swallowed up by capitalism and careerism via metric-focused bands slowly killing us with their soulless release campaigns, from the sidelines, it’s this kind of pain one has to endure in order to reach the core of something truly meaningful. At that core, there are bands like The Gotobeds. An act that revel in the small victories, for they know they are the sweetest ones. Whether The Gotobeds are content with their underdog status might be another question, but it doesn’t take away the fact that these small victories mean so much more, and on the back of Masterclass, well, the title says it all.

Masterclass is out now via 12XU. Purchase from Bandcamp.