Mind bombs never aim for the middle. Accordingly, this mutant party noisescape for the maladroit demands submission or retreat. Guerilla Toss summons skull-rattling intrigue by crossing maker lab art-punk with distressed basslines and salvage-yard funk percussion. The latter elements distinguish this NYC-by-way-of-Boston crew from workaday cacophony merchants. Poetic vocalist Kassie Carlson articulates the thesis with a fevered anti-commercialism sermon on opener “Multibeast TV.” Centerpiece “Grass Shack” festoons its strutting bottom end with institutional-strength digital burble and squeak. In resetting the groove amid tornadic aural chaos, they back-channel an unlikely link to the flesh-and-blood realm. (Fri., 10pm, Barracuda)
This article appears in March 18 • 2016.
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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.
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