Name: Famously Alive
Brand: Guerilla Toss

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SPCS1480

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Tape

Limited edition

Release date

2022-03-25

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

098787148046

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / Tape

SPCD1480

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098787148022

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "098787148022"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

SP1480

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Purple

Transparent Purple

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098787148008

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / purple

Artist

Guerilla Toss

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Sub Pop

Band known for inciting moshing and booty dancing in equal measure. Formed in Boston, Guerilla Toss is currently based in both New York state and the city. Their unique sound blends elements of punk, noise rock, and experimental pop to create a high-energy sonic experience.
Inspired by artists such as *The I.L.Y's*, *Lightning Bolt*, and *Tropical Fuck Storm*, Guerilla Toss has gained a reputation for their electrifying live performances and genre-defying music. With influences ranging from *Zach Hill* to *Deerhoof*, their sound is characterized by frenetic rhythms, distorted guitars, and catchy melodies.
Joining the ranks of other boundary-pushing bands like *Melt-Banana* and *Hella*, Guerilla Toss continues to push the boundaries of what is considered conventional music. With a discography that includes albums like "GT Ultra" and "Twisted Crystal", they have garnered a dedicated fanbase who appreciate their fearless approach to creating art.

Short for "Subterranean Pop" 

The label was an outgrowth of [a=Bruce Pavitt]'s Olympia, WA based (print) fanzine, which became the well respected cassettezine of the same name. 

After his move to Seattle he ran a music column in the Seattle Rocket also called Sub Pop.

After initial forays into the record label world with a [a=Green River] 7" (not officially on Sub Pop) and the Sub Pop 100 LP, the label exploded onto the indie scene with four influential colored vinyl 7"s which included [a=Mudhoney]'s "Touch Me I'm Sick" which made the year-end top 10 playlist of nearly every music journalist in the world.

Subsequent hyping of the label in the English music press put them on the map, and grunge was born.

Label-Code is 03159; rarely found printed on releases (basically only on releases manufactured/licensed by Warner/WEA Germany)

Dig deep enough inside yourself - start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy - and eventually you'll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That's the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent - awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.

Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. "You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic," she says. "I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people."

The album's title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman, who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self-acceptance. "The song 'Famously Alive' is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s," notes Carlson. Negroponte adds. "I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person."

Throughout the record, Guerilla Toss meet themselves with curiosity, generosity, and acceptance even for the harder parts of being alive. Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music. Carlson’s voice, its range now broadened by a recent venture into formal training, puts playful, searching vocal melodies and lyrics about reaching for yourself and holding fast in your own love atop ripples of Auto-Tune. 

Famously Alive finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. It is a joyous album, equal parts bizarre, accessible, and fun.