Goes Cube
New York City, New York, United States | MAJOR
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I first came across the Brooklyn-based trio GOES CUBE a couple of years ago while the band was on tour in support of their last album, "Another Day Has Passed". The band immediately grabbed me with their organic and incredibly thunderous live sound. I walked away from that show praising the band for their ability to write ridiculously heavy, well-crafted, digestible and diverse music. I also felt the album I took home with me did a good, but not great job of representing the band. They nailed it with "In Tides And Drifts".
I used the words ridiculously heavy a sentence or two ago and that's exactly how this disc starts off. A squeal of feedback, a drum roll and BAM — "Safety Coffin" plays the over-fuzzed, thrash n' groove bull to your china shop and less than two minutes later you're hooked. With a slightly longer playing time, "Thunderhead" shows just how good a band GOES CUBE is by keeping the ruthless aggression intact, but opening things up a bit with infectious riffing, clever interplay between the guitar and bass and the almighty hook. The band's ability to throw so many riffs (and good ones at that) at the listener in such a short amount of time really shines on the two-minute "Property". The energy and clock time of the three opening tunes suggest a punk aesthetic, but the music is meaty enough to leave anyone with a SABBATH or HELMET album in their collection salivating on their shirt.
"In Tides And Drifts" gets really interesting with "In The Homes Of". Guitarist David Obuchowski takes his style of riffing to the next level for a more expansive kind of heaviness before the song drops into a slower, moodier dynamic. Stepping away from his harsh screams, the frontman orates from a lower, almost chant-like register which is made downright chilling when female folk singer Jaymay steps in to lend her voice. A spine-tingling tune if there ever was one. Jaymay returns for a more sultry and upfront performance on the title track. An epic end to a great album, this tune runs the gamut from mellow to monstrous before fading into silence.
In the middle of "In Tides And Drifts" is the three part journey — "The Story Is The Story Begins", "The Story Is The Story Goes" and "The Story Is The Story Ends". Every bit as diverse and all over the map as the rest of the album, these three share a certain synergy that demands they be taken in as a whole.
Whether GOES CUBE is pounding away at the heaviest grooves this side of a Southern sludge fest, lying back in a smoke-filled spacey-jazz pocket or thrashing their collective heads off, they do a damn good job of it. What's even more beautiful about this release is that the trio of Obuchowski, drummer Kenny Appell and bassist Matt Tyson can switch gears from one extreme to the other so seamlessly you'd think that everything would sound this effortless. Tags like art-metal, post-grunge or hipstercore don't begin to describe the type of band that GOES CUBE has become. This is aggressive and emotional music written with depth, grace and style. And it's fucking brilliant above all else. - Blabbermouth
In Tides and Drifts should be titled In Tsunamis and Rapids. Why would the freaky hardcore/metal gluttons Goes Cube stop and smell the roses when they can blaze past them at eyeball-melting speed and leave a pile of thorns in their dust? However, on their second full-length, the Brooklyn trio does make the effort to find pockets of uneasy, disorienting stillness. In the midst of the ruckus, Goes Cube peer into the eye of the storm and stare that mother down.
In Tides starts off sounding like a Converge song dropped on top of and Iron Maiden song. While a slew of manic piranhas strip the muscle off a dozen Mister Universe contestants, steady hands are busy chiseling out riffs out of marble. Good for a few tracks, but not enought to sustain a whole album. Thankfully, someone in the Goes Cube camp must have busted out the hash, because it isn't long before the music gets more sludgy and intricate. Goes Cube lean heavily toward Kylesa and Mastodon's more rumbleicious moments (see: the monstrous "Year of the Human" and "The Story Is the Story Begins"). Pummeling rhythms and dark, brooding emotions wreak glorious havoc, and the band spins in and out of the ether.
The hefty jams lead inevitably to the title track (featuring the longing voice of the folk singer Jaymay), which feels like the aftereffect of all the head trauma-a spacey atmospheric jam spliced with rage. What could have been one extended static blur has moments of frightful clarity. - Jeanne Fury - Decibel Magazine
Holy shit, Goes Cube is an insanely good band. I went to see these guys expecting nothing and came away feeling newfound hope for the future of rock in New York City. Their formula is simple, the singer/guitarist wails while stomping on his distortion pedal, the bassist blasts out quick booming riffs, and the drummer, well, the drummer is just sick. He's seriously the best drummer I've seen in quite a while. When he really gets into it, he even stands up in order to get the optimal angle for precise pummeling. Now that's rock 'n' roll.
Goes Cube, like fellow locals The Big Sleep, are mighty refreshing in these post-Interpol days. This band scoffs at synths. This band can't be bothered with blog hype. And damn it, this band wears whatever the hell they want. This band rules. See them. Now. - Oh My Rockness
"Another Day Has Passed is a rarity - a record that is aggressive, melodic, brutal, punishing, and completely at odds with anything currently popular in the metal world, meaning it is neither too proggy or too death-y nor sounding like Metallica circa 1988"
see more: http://theendrecords.com/reviews/308-goes-cube-reviews/1573-decibel-reviews-goes-cube-another-day-has-passed - Decibel Magazine
"a tight and upbeat brand of metal that aims straight at the heart of the mainstream—and mostly hits strikes." - Revolver Magazine
"Another Day is a stunning eruption of proggy punk metal, combining the anthemic melodies and tight posthardcore song structures of Torche with the restrained mathiness and fathoms-deep textures of Isis. Furiously aggressive yet scarily nimble, it’s the sound of skinny tech geeks savoring the sweet justice of kicking sand in the jocks’ faces, over and over—and you don’t get the feeling it’ll stop being fun for these guys when somebody loses an eye."
full text: http://events.chicagoreader.com/chicago/Event?oid=1103238 - Chicago Reader
Goes Cube "The Only Daughter": Brooklyn metal-punks with roiling riffs for days, but taut songwriting like you're at a Fugazi vs Helmet 12-rounder. - Spin Magazine
Goes Cube force us to discard our genre tags and recognize the rarity of the word “song” as it pertains to metal. They can write a damn fine one, complete with verses and a chorus and ye olde bridge...Another Day Has Passed feels nigh boundaryless in its warm embrace of the many forms of layin’ it down. This can only be good for heavy music."
full text here: http://www.metalsucks.net/2009/04/20/another-day-has-passed-and-you-still-havent-heard-goes-cube/ - MetalSucks
In cooking, it's called a reduction. If you filled a pot with post-hardcore from the 90s and simmered it down to the essence, that culinary delight might be Goes Cube. They cherry-pick the best moments from Quicksand, Helmet, and Jawbox, and deliver it with a thunder that would make an Orange amp technician proud. Don't take my word for it though, check out "The Only Daughter" from their debut LP Another Day Has Passed available for download above.
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/04/goes_cube_new_m.html - BrooklynVegan
Goes Cube are a schizophrenic power trio of the highest calibre. One minute they're slovenly sloth-like brutal doom; the next, it's thrash-tinged AmRep noise before a move toward Torche's infectious thunder-pop sound.... - Rock Sound Magazine
Goes Cube @ Knitting Factory, NYC 7/11/06
"Goes Cube's sledgehammer assault was inescapably awesome. They bludgeoned our eardrums -- and our hearts -- with their epic Fugazi feel, machine gun double-bass assault and monumental larynx-shredding vocals." AND "Goes Cube just may have become our favorite underground locals. They're definitely our loudest." -STEREOGUM. Read the full post:
http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002858.html
- Stereogum
"On Goes Cube's latest EP, Beckon the Dagger God, double-bass drums collide with impossibly ballsy guitars and disarming chord structures -- a provocative blend of Sonic Youth artiness and Slayeresque fury." - Pittsburgh City Paper
Discography
"Beckon The Dagger God" distributed by Cordless Records (Warner Music Group)
"Another Day Has Passed" full-length released 5/12/09 on THE END RECORDS
Co-Extinction Recordings Volume II EP "Crohns Attack"/"Where They Found Me" released on 11/15/10 on COEXTINCTION RECORDINGS
"Property" b/w "The Ban Has Been Lifted" 7" single released January 2011 on THE END RECORDS
"In Tides And Drifts" full-length released 3/29/11 on THE END RECORDS
"What Ruckus: Loud Songs from 2005 - 2011" EP of rarities to be released August, 2012 on THE END RECORDS
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Bio
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Goes Cube has gained notoriety for two things: their fierce independence, and for being fierce, period. Indeed, the trio is most often described as brutal, heavy, and loud. Their live shows are renowned for not only the volume they are able to produce, but the pure energy with which they perform. Perhaps Stereogum put it best when they cited the band’s “sledgehammer assault.”
It would be easy to call them a metal band. After all, their music is heavy, loud, and often fast. But Goes Cube continually demonstrates that it exists in a universe all its own: outside the trends and styles of New York (where the band formed), and outside of the standard metal tropes.
In 2009, Goes Cube astounded critics in the US and Europe with their debut full-length Another Day Has Passed. Publications cheered the abundance of riffs and aggression pummeling through thick atmosphere, dynamic shifts, and nostalgic nods to punk, noise-rock, and hardcore. It was enough to earn the record a spot on Decibel Magazine’s list of the 40 best albums in 2009.
After touring (with the likes of Helmet, Intronaut, and East of the Wall) and an acclaimed EP on Coextinction Recordings in 2010, Goes Cube returned to the forefront of the metal scene in 2011 with their second full length album entitled In Tides And Drifts. While most bands become more polished, and more produced, Goes Cube did away with the sheen, and opted, instead, for pure rawness. Going against the grain of the current metal scene, the band the band took a stripped-down approach, and a very simple philosophy: make the heavy heavier, fast faster, hooky hookier, and pretty prettier. The result is a savage album consisting of 13 lean, extremely mean songs that total just over 40 minutes.
How unlikely then that within those ruthless 40-plus minutes of music, listeners will find the gorgeous voice of acclaimed folk singer, Jaymay on two of the album’s songs. Her haunting melodies break hearts as the band behind her batters eardrums.
On the album, Decibel said Goes Cube "peer into the eye of the storm and stare that mother down." In its stellar review of the album, Kerrang! called it "a contender for the album of the year," and indeed, it made their year-end list.
Goes Cube have never been your typical musicians. All of them are self-taught, and as such they have a sound and style all their own. They reject the notion of what it typically means to be in a metal. but their mark is undeniable. After years of touring and recording some of the most eye-opening music, Goes Cube has proven themselves to be one of the most exciting and exhilarating bands in America.
Goes Cube is:
Matt Tyson: Bass Guitar
Kenny Appell: Drums
David Obuchowski: Guitar, Vocals
LABEL:
The End Records
BOOKING:
The 3Thirteen Group
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