I first encountered the Gotobeds in August 2014, at a benefit for the great rock bard Karl Hendricks in their mutual hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Gotobeds went on fashionably (if not voluntarily) late and proceeded to lay waste to anything else anyone tried to do that evening.
I took an abnormal number of photos and was made a fan for life.
This kind of instant affection happens to me, particularly in my jaded dotage, so very rarely that I feel it is worth noting.
Almost inevitably, an attempt to describe an unnameable jolt will devolve into predictable cliches.
I'm talking about old chestnuts like:
Bouncing off the walls
Spending about half an hour in a washing machine full of bolts and rose petals
Having sand thrown in your eyes just before being kissed vigorously on the neck
All of which are a) barely better than nothing on the word front but b) do apply, if lazily so, to the Gotobeds’ various, terrific issuances: on 12XU (to which they have happily returned), their erstwhile label Sub Pop, etc. And the latter two apply perhaps most especially to their terrific new record–Masterclass.
The Gotobeds have an unwavering commitment to bending and breaking things in the process of remaking them into something bolder and better (and, a couple of lineup changes to the contrary, not laying anyone off wantonly from critical government jobs). "Goes Away," to wit, is remarkably fractured, chomping up the minutes, 0% rounded off as is their default setting--do not toy with perfection.
