ANCHR's Artist of the Day: Gouge Away
I once worked with an oldhead who used to ask me a lot about current punk. Always deeply worried that kids these days were not listening to punk and that his beloved genre would be lost forever. After a particularly worried conversation I promised I’d make him a list of all the current punk bands out there that I like. He liked maybe three of them, my guess being that none of them were the punk he remembered. Which is part of what makes Gouge Away so good. Despite their allusion to the Pixies, they’re not your dad’s (or in my case ex punk co-worker’s) punk band. They’re as far from replica as you can be. Instead staggering through and around hard labels. All snare and open chords Gouge Away’s 2018 LP ‘Burnt Sugar’ is a Pandora’s box that can’t be shut until frontperson Christina Michelle decides she’s released enough unto us all. It’s a sound that’s foaming at the mouth and gasping for breath, Michelle’s coarse vocals sometimes leaving her sounding ragged. Though the sound is dense Michelle’s frank lyrics can still be understood as she openly broaches mental illness and sexual assault. Admitting that she has begun welcoming pain as company she tells herself “I’ve just been trying to quit, whatever that means.” There are fingernails on the wall from where the band is just trying to hang on, “hurt is a commodity.” Gouge Away is an onslaught always toying with instability, on ‘Ghost’ drawing out the heavy bass and building the crash of drums, Michelle even briefly singing before her howls take over the track. A whiplash guitar teases us on ‘Dis S O C I a T I O N’ adding to the band’s varied sound. But what I like best about Gouge Away is how unafraid they are to be ugly, to be visceral, to get their spit on you when they’re leaning in and talking real close.