You Nearly Missed: 100 Gecs at the PNE Forum
As album opening lines go, it’s pretty much unassailably perfect: “If you think I’m stupid now, you should see me when I’m high.”
With that first salvo from “Dumbest Girl Alive” off 10,000 gecs, the duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Lee immediately take out their critics at the kneecaps. Of the opinion that 100 Gecs is the TikTok version of (take your pick) Mindless Self Indulgence, Skrillex, Chicks on Speed, Plastic Ono Band, I Set My Friends on Fire, Obsidian Wave, and/or Mr. Bungle?
The St. Louis-spawned duo could not give less of a shit, mostly because their two busy laughing at you every bit as hard as they’re totally killing themselves. And that’s nothing new.
Imagine riding a 23-minute, entirely uncategorizable debut to Coachella and the New Yorker, piling up gushing endorsements from fangirls like Charli XCX, and the inking major label deal. (How uncategorizable was 1000 Gecs? The best descriptor anyone has been able to come up for the band Technicolor shitmix of styles is “hyperpop”, which is a little like calling the Refused “punk”.)
And then, with the whole world watching (or at least Stereogum, Gorilla Vs. Beer, and Brooklyn Vegan frequent flyers) watching, 100 Gecs doubled down on the insanity for album two. Clocking in at a hyper-economical 27 minutes, 10,000 Gecs is sonic spin art for the ADHD afflicted, Brady and Lee careening from Ill Communication metal to double-amphetamined dubstep to Tank Girl punk to (insert your favourite made-up genre here).
You were hoping for something profound on 10,000 Gecs? Sorry you had to make do with the electro-dinked “Doritos & Fritos” (sample lyric: “Okay, I went to France to get some new pants”), the swirling carnival-pop of "Frog on the Floor” (“Frog on the floor, where’d he come from/Nobody knows where he’ll go”), and the fifth-wave turbo ska blast “I Got My Tooth Removed” (“My cheek swelled up twice its size and I started attracting flies”).
And don’t forget“Dumbest Girl Alive” and "If you think I’m stupid now, you should see me when I’m high.” Haters, you’ve been served.
100 Gecs plays the PNE Forum tomorrow (April 7) with Machine Girl opening. Go here for tickets.
Comments