The Gooeys

So here's a five piece from Canada going for a super damaged kind of bubblegum garage pop. On "Scary Black Cherry Nap" the jangly distorted guitars bounce along to this pumped up super high tone organ, up in the super squealy registers, those stabs at this carnival better be perfectly placed and so far Shauna hasn't drawn blood, she just dances around this peppy melody like second nature. Craig on guitar and vocals is teetering between this blown out distortion and underwater phaser on the chorus. A real demented nightmare ride that goes for whiplash, fast and slow, fast and slow. Like Wounded Lion with a Cramps surf tiki vibe, especially on "Suspicious Hunch Amongst the Bloody Mary for Lunch Bunch" and this time the organ dives low into beefy riffs, with a scuzzier guitar, all played with a manic energy, getting these four tracks together at 45. This has that sinister B-movie danger sound, no matter how much they keep trying to steer this into pop, I know they're up to no good. Singing back and forth with himself, a perfect schizophrenic split. Jamming the two halves of these melodies together at all costs.
B-Side's "Lay Down and Die" lets the smooth guitar riff warm up next to a funky bassline, but that organ is again the star of these kooky tracks, it's a children's gameshow run amok sound, all spazz and Craig is howling somewhere behind this bouncy rock trying to find a foothold. The echo is liberally applied to his half singing delivery, while the guitar rhythm and the demented organ stay in this CR-A-ZY SYNC.
"I Don't Know Why" slows things up in a heavy tom fill explosion and more restrained organ melody, but Craig is back banished to the back of the room, while on chorus Shauna takes her keys to an almost cute in an english twee way, making room for the guitar to take stabbing duty. Bizarre and utterly unique, I can't even at this point figure out what kind of garage they're playing in. You'd imagine it was half a joke if they didn't deliver this so convincingly. - 7 inches

The trouble with much of the recent garage revivalism is that so many bands have nailed the sound and aesthetic while forgetting to write the quality songs to back it up. Calgary's the Gooeys have no such problem, as their bubblegummy garage pop hits all the right criteria without sacrificing in the sweet, sugary songwriting department.

Take, for example, the song "Lay Down & Die," set to be part of the group's upcoming Scary Black Cherry Nap seven-inch. The warm, vintage production and keyboard-heavy instrumentation make it unclear what era this is from, but frontman Craig Storm has also written and arranged an endlessly interesting, catchy composition. - Exclaim.ca

The Gooeys are the newest and maybe weirdest kids in Calgary—the kind of kids that hang out in the graveyard and guzzle gasoline, read too many issues of Cracked magazine and freak out straight-laced suburbanites with their tripped-out, garage pop glop. Just as Jim Jones’ followers downed the purple poison to purgatory, the Gooeys want you to take a “Scary Black Cherry Nap” via their sticky-wicky keyboard lines and sharp-edged guitar jabs. A “Suspicious Hunch Amongst The Bloody Mary For Lunch Bunch” may just tip you off before you “Lay Down & Die” from the sounds of the tub-thumping drum and bass rumble. “I Don’t Know Why” anyone would be left standing, ‘cuz this EP knocks ‘em dead! Calgary continues their time-honoured tradition of making musical magic, so get this and get gone! - Discorder

Although I hate to get ahead of myself, I rarely have come across such perfectly crafted modern garage rock as the Gooeys’ debut E.P., or even a band with as good of a name as the Gooeys. Such a phrase as garage rock is often tossed around without much meaning, and I even admit using it for convenience now and again, but groups like the Black Keys and the White Stripes who were touted as the return of garage really weren’t. However, the Gooeys certainly are.

Sure a lot of groups may have recorded in a garage-like setting, but it’s not where you record it, it’s how. True garage rock is not some slick and sleazy ten minute jam, but raw, hard, economic and highly melodic pop. Garage rock has been simple and dirty since the Kingsmen recorded “Louie Louie” with a single microphone, and the Sonics ripped off the soundproofing from the walls.

Not only do the Gooeys fulfill all of this expertly but they have one other element that puts them above the rest, something that often goes unappreciated: The organ. The organ is to garage rock what Ginger Baker’s drumming is to “Sunshine of Your Love;” often unrecognized but the true driving force behind the music. Garage rock is not garage rock unless it has at least some variant of the organ, whether it be saxophone or harmonica.

But what makes the Gooeys so strikingly unique and interesting amongst their peers is that aside from the Seeds and the Remains, they take note from the freaks of 60s garage rock, the kids like the Count Five who had too much time on their hands in the suburbs of California, and the Gooeys so perfectly studied all of it, even all the way down to the Electric Prunes vocal effects. They even get their song titles right, with tracks like “Scary Black Cherry Nap” and “Suspicious Hunch Amongst the Bloody Mary For Lunch Bunch” that would have easily fit snugly in between songs like “I Had To Much to Dream (Last Night)” and “Evil Hoodoo.”

As easily as any of these songs could have been the result legendary 60s garage groups, Craig Storm’s fantastic vocals would make the Gooeys something of an anomaly, because he does have that same captivating quality that David Byrne has. There is a never a moment he doesn’t sound psychotically on edge, as if any minute he could have a sudden mental break down, and you’re wondering if you should be getting him a straitjacket anytime soon and it’s wonderful. It just makes the Gooeys all the more addicting.

However, my only problem with it, and I have only one, is that it is so short, and just an E.P., not a full length. Of all the groups I don’t want to be teased by with four short perfect songs, the Gooeys are at the top of their list. Unfortunately often in garage rock, it is a custom for groups to have only release to their name and then disappear without a trace, leaving behind nothing but a name, but hopefully, the Gooeys will around for a long time. Gooeys, if you’re reading this, please stick around for awhile, I don’t want to have to resort to listening to the Black Keys. - Neotomic Webzine

“I completely suck at sounding like ‘now,’” Craig Storm admits. He’s employing his trademark self-deprecation, a manner of speaking he uses both in person and onstage under his solo moniker, the Monroeville Music Center, and more recently with The Gooeys. Still, behind his less-than-confident tone are often nuggets of truth. “I learned guitar playing along to the Ventures’ and the Munsters’ theme. I learned organ trying to sound like gospel and Halloween records, and learned bass trying to emulate ’60s garage.”
Its less-than-2011 approach is a major plus for The Gooeys, however, as the group’s sugary sweet bubble-gum pop and timeless garage dynamics work in an era-less vacuum. Still, with such a delightful blend, it comes as a surprise that Storm stumbled upon this sound almost by accident.
The project kicked off early last year, when Storm was recording demos for his former band, Weird Shits, using a four-track app on his iPhone, a method of songwriting he still uses today. Deeming the poppy material “too sissy” for the group, he uploaded them to the web under the name The Gooeys.
“I suppose a ’60s garage, bubble-gum-ish psych sort of thing is what I was after,” he says. “I think I’m experimenting to see what would happen if Jayne County, Davie Allan, Bill Wyman, Archie Andrews and Shirley Jones could hang out sometime.”
From there, Topless Mongos guitarist Devon Giancarlo got in touch to sign up for the full band, and was soon followed by Storm’s Weird Shits bandmates Ivo Musa and Darrell Hartsook along with keyboardist Shauna Luedtke. Musa recently left the project and was replaced by Faux Fur’s Jean Audet, making this a true who’s-who of Calgary music.
The band played its first show at Tubby Dog earlier this year and instantly caught the attention of Lethbridge’s Mammoth Cave Recording Co., which recorded the group’s debut 7-inch, Scary Black Cherry Nap, in one day at label co-owner Paul Lawton’s home studio. “I think I might have weirded the others out a bit because I was kind of micromanaging every choice and asking them to do another take, and tweaking organ knobs and stuff,” Storm says.
Despite a healthy amount of buzz for the debut 7-inch, The Gooeys likely won’t be hitting the road as hard as some of their peers, as Storm is a father of three with a real-life, adult job.
“I probably can’t tour for a month at a time,” he admits. “But apart from maybe Devon, I don’t think anyone else can either. Shauna’s got a swell job, Jean’s got school, Darrell’s got his emerging shoe warehouse stocking business. The minivan’s helpful though.”
With that in mind, Storm is just enjoying the project each step of the way as he continues to write more off-kilter garage pop tunes and plans releases. He even takes the time to enjoy our interview in his classic self-effacing tone. “This is fun. Until I read it I guess and sound like a dick.... Ahh well. You are what you eat, I always say.”
- FFWD

Craig Storm and his seasick sailors of the good ship Gooey bob, surf and wooze through puddles of organ-fried carnival candy paisley-pop puke on this cavity-rotting platter from the Cave. Moving past deadpan and directly onto dead, Storm sounds like he’d rather be filing his T4s than fronting this squadron of subterranean vets, roping in past and present card carrying members of Gaye Rage, Grown Ups and the mammy slappin’ Topless Mongos. Whether flipping herky jerk tempos like BBQ burgers or dipping scuba dive keys like the B-52s, this is the dictionary definition of quintessential, kiddies. - Weird Canada