By Welcome to our Bandcacamp Picks of the Week, featuring Golden Boots’ freaked out alt-country album LIQUID RANCH and Gulfer’s career best album THIRD WIND!
Golden Boots – LIQUID RANCH
Genre: Alt-Country
Favorite Tracks: “Skylight,” “Odd Essay,” “Lookout!”
Recently, I went by myself to see Explosions in the Sky. What I thought was going to be a nice evening of quietly emoting in a corner to cinematic post-rock instead began with Golden Boots. The Tucson, Arizona-based duo ain’t exactly in the soul-stirring business, but as they broke off cuts from 2022’s LIQUID RANCH, I nonetheless had something of an emotional experience—before gently weeping to EitS, of course.
Whether you already know Golden Boots or not, the 14-track effort is a sampler platter of their oddly earnest and brazen brand of rock concocted across 20-plus years. “Lookout!” is the gem of pure pop-rock that crystalizes everything about that chipper genre that’s made me swoon my whole life (without falling prey to nostalgia poisoning). “Chemical Burn” is when the LP first gets doubly weird, a deluge of trippy, Flaming Lips-level absurdity and trippiness that would be scary if it weren’t maddeningly charming. Meanwhile, “Sky Light” (a proper standout) shows that the band’s charm comes less from lyrical constructs and overarching thematics and rather from the wackiness and heart that’s infused in every second of this genuinely adventurous instrumental. There’s other notable moments, too, like the uber psychedelic jam “Odd Essay” or the aural equivalent of a hopeful sunset that is “Suicide Electric.” It’s a quirky and compelling record, like hearing a Replacements record after hyper-dosing on edible gummies.
Sure, I was already emotional as I listened to the record on the train home. (And again eating pizza over the sink.) But it wasn’t just weepy carryover; LIQUID RANCH, with all its home-recorded wonder, is about celebrating the weirdness of a well-lived life. Gathering all the heartfelt memories and weird sentiments of your existence, and trying to celebrate the inherent magic. For me and Golden Boots especially, that’s tied to the specificities of living in Arizona, and the glories and letdowns of our kooky slice o’real estate. (The lean twang and sun-speckled sentiments dotting this record make it among my most favorite “desert rock” records.) But even if you’ve never set foot in Arizona, you likely know what it’s like to look back on the collective thoughts and efforts of your life and wring out the most joy while respecting all the terrible things. That’s the essence of this record: no matter how weird or lonesome or forlorn or maddeningly silly it may get, the story of your life is written in this very weird patchwork. And for Golden Boots, it’s still a powerfully resonant and relevant story.
So, yeah, the band tossed a monkey wrench in my plans that evening. But it was the best such wrench I could’ve imagined as it added new nooks and crannies to my emotional night out. It led me to a place that was more textured and multifaceted than I’d set out for, and from that I got to delve into ideas of home, nostalgia, memory, longing, and embracing life’s peculiarities. Sure, it ain’t “Welcome, Ghosts,” but you should’ve seen me just strutting around my kitchen. Listen to it now over on Bandcamp. [Chris Coplan]
Gulfer – THIRD WIND
Genre: Rock, Fifth-Wave Emo, Shoegaze
Favorite Tracks: “Cherry Seed,” “No Brainer,” “Vacant Spirit”
If THIRD WIND were the debut album from an up-and-coming group, it’d be slotted into the fifth-wave canon easily. But it isn’t; it’s the third LP from Montréal emo revivalists Gulfer. It’s a far cry from the mathy stuff they were doing when they first formed in 2011—although elements of that sound remain—and it finds the group embracing a host of new sounds and ideas. For the most part, this shift can be attributed to vocalist/guitarist Joseph Therriault, who joined the band five years in and mostly took a backseat to vocalist/guitarist Vincent Ford. This is the first Gulfer record on which the majority of the songwriting was Therriault’s.
“Motive,” which begins as a classic Gulfer math romp, shifts gears halfway through into a woozy, fuzzed-out alt-country tune; similarly, “Too Slow” is effectively a song in two parts: the first minute is a shouty emo barnburner, and in the second half it’s a hiccuping drum’n’bass loop. But the most prominent new influence across THIRD WIND is shoegaze: “Cherry Seed” is a pop rock track bruised up by blasts of feedback a la Deerhunter, and “Vacant Spirit” submerges the tappy, technical riffs of their earlier material under a wave of reverb. The warbling, buzzsaw guitars of the noise-pop opus “No Brainer” sound like the work of aliens (and would sound totally alien on either of Gulfer’s prior full-lengths). It’s easier, for the most part, to count the moments on here that call to mind Hotline TNT than those with clear precedents in the work of the Kinsellas.
It’s interesting to hear a band like Gulfer make an album like THIRD WIND in 2024; a lot of the bands who came up alongside them in the early 2010s have faded away or shifted gradually into other styles. THIRD WIND doesn’t hedge and it doesn’t equivocate. As much as it’s a reintroduction to Gulfer, it’s also a reminder that there’s a reason they’ve stayed around so long when so many of their peers haven’t. Pick it up on Bandcamp. [Zac Djamoos]
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