Gustaf have announced their signing to Royal Mountain Records, and also shared their debut single and video Mine. The first recorded material from a band who have played sold out shows around the United States based solely on word of mouth, Mine offers an engagingly weird and frantically off-kilter look into the all-encompassing world of the Brooklyn-based art-punk quintet. Watch the weirdo video clip for Mine via YouTube below.
Vocalist Lydia Gammill explains: “This song is about having a false sense of entitlement. Someone who feels attacked or like they’re being pushed out of their own world and not getting the credit they deserve. Someone with a delusional sense of self whose anger and frustration is humorous like the superintendent in a college frat movie. The opening lines make it seem like the narrator is being criticized by someone else and their retaliation is like “you’ve got to be kidding me, you can’t say that about me! I invented water you punk!” …. sort of.”
Formed in 2018, Brooklyn’s Gustaf have built a kind of buzz that feels like it comes from a different era. The art punk five-piece are yet to release any recorded music, but rapidly established a reputation as one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (BrooklynVegan), and excitement about their danceable, ESG-inspired post punk has expanded outside of their city with remarkable effect despite their scant online presence. The band have found early champions in all quarters, catching the attention of luminaries like Beck – who had the band open for him at a secret loft party he played around the release of his latest album – the New York no wave legend James Chance, and have shared stages with buzzing indie acts like Omni, Tropical Fuck Storm, Dehd and Bodega, while word of mouth led to sell out shows when they played their first LA headline dates in late 2019.
While recent events have curtailed Gustaf’s live schedule, the band have remained relentless as ever in 2020, and entered the studio with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands, TV On The Radio) to work on their first official release.
‘Mine’ track list
1. Mine
2. Design
Mine 7″ is out via Royal Mountain Records on December 4th. It’s available for pre-order here.