"This is one for the kids," Guerilla Toss proclaimed in an Instagram post today, announcing the release of their new song — the title track of their fifth studio LP and Sub Pop debut, Famously Alive, out March 25 — and premiering its music video. It's the forthcoming album's second single, following last month's "Cannibal Capital."
Where that track found GT with one foot in the noisy territory where they used to be firmly rooted and the other in the lush, psych-pop world of their two most recent records, "Famously Alive" is a full-throttle pop track — or, as the band dubbed it in the same post, "Hyper Punk." Kassie Carlson's vocals are mechanically multiplied to produce massive, bubble-gum harmonies, as Arian Shafiee's ever-skronky guitar skips explosive, open chords across the seething surface of Peter Negroponte's manic drum line.
In a press release, Carlson and Negroponte shared divergent but mutually optimistic interpretations on new the track's (and upcoming album's) title.
Carlson: "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."
Negroponte: "flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously. 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."
The song's visual treatment, directed by Johnny Kosomo, follows Carlson's trippy journey through a tunnel made of blue-and-purple goop, which carries her to the Sunset Strip, her dog Watley's food bowl, a grassy field where she operates a push mower, and an animated desert where she rides a horse bareback and spins a lasso beneath an acid sky (among other locations).
Watch the video above, and view Guerilla Toss' upcoming tour dates below.
Guerilla Toss spring 2022 North American tour
4/13 - Richmond, VA - Richmond Music Hall
4/14 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
4/15 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5
4/16 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room - Third Man Records
4/17 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
4/19 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
4/20 - Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
4/21 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
4/22 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison
4/23 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz P.D.B
4/25 - Portland, ME - Space
4/26 - Somerville, MA - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville
4/27 - Providence, RI - Columbus Theatre
4/28 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
4/29 - Queens, NY - TV Eye
4/30 - Queens, NY - TV Eye
5/11 - Washington, DC - DC9
5/12 - Kingston, NY - Tubbys