gay against you

gay against you (stylised in lower case;^[1] sometimes abbreviated GVsY^[2]) were an electronic music duo from Glasgow, Scotland, made up of high school friends Joseph Howe (aka Oats Soda;^[3] b. 1983, Perth, Scotland) and Lachlann Rattray (aka Mr. Big Softie;^[3] b. 1983, Natal, South Africa).

Biography

The band formed in 2005 after Howe and Rattray moved into a shared flat,^[4] having previously played together in various other bands.^[5] They self-released a mini-album,^[6] also named gay against you, in 2005. It became one of the most frequently downloaded records from the last.fm website.^[7] The following year their debut full-length album, Muscle Milk, was released by the Adaadat label.^[8]

The popularity of the band's first record on last.fm led to the group being asked to perform live at the Old Blue Last venue in Shoreditch for a last.fm/Presents event, which was recorded and released as a free downloadable album on the site.^[9] Their second full-length album, Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes, was released on CD in 2009 by Adaadat,^[1] with a vinyl version released by the Upset the Rhythm! label.^[10]

gay against you toured the United Kingdom several times, also touring Scandinavia^[11] and elsewhere in Europe.^[12] They played gigs with the likes of Lightning Bolt, Dan Deacon, Shitdisco, No Age, Cutting Pink With Knives, The Blow and Eats Tapes.^[7] They recorded radio sessions for Tom Ravenscroft's Channel 4 Radio show^[13] and for Vic Galloway's "BBC Introducing in Scotland" show on BBC Radio 1.^[14] They were also played by Radio 1's Rob da Bank and Steve Lamacq, and on Resonance FM.^[7]

A rumour spread in the Norwegian press that the NME had called gay against you "the new shit",^[15] leading to reporters unexpectedly attending their Norwegian shows requesting interviews; no-one knows where this rumour originated.

The band broke up in 2009 following the release of Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes. They issued a further EP posthumously, I Play Gay, consisting of covers of the band's songs by Dananananaykroyd, Dolby Anol, Agaskodo Teliverek and House Mouse.^[16]

Both members continued to perform separately and released solo records. Howe used the name Germlin^[1] for his solo work and has more recently performed and released skweee-influenced music as Ben Butler and Mousepad,^[17] sometimes accompanied by drummer Bastian Hagedorn. Rattray has also performed and released as Yoko, Oh No!,^[1][6][18] as well as playing in the band Neighbourhood Gout.^[4]

Style

The band gained attention for their flamboyant^[4] and chaotic live shows^[11] (often played with Howe and Rattray dressed in PE kits^[10][19] and on the venue's dancefloor rather than the stage^[20][21]), prominent visual style,^[4][10] offbeat subject matter (with songs about unicorns,^[22] lactose intolerance,^[23] Lawrence of Arabia, breakfast cereal,^[1] Magic Eye puzzles,^[9] Jurassic Park and physicist Niels Bohr^[12]) and their diverse and experimental musical style. Their early work was noted as combining accessible pop melodies with unconventional, rapidly changing song structures^[3] and disorientating bursts of synthesizer or electric guitar.^[1] Later material was described as "slightly more... mature", with lush analogue-sounding synth and even psychedelic influences.^[10]

Stated influences included Magma, Minutemen,^[12] Devo, Cardiacs and BBC Radio 4.^[1] The band garnered comparisons to artists such as The Locust, Melt-Banana, Animal Collective,^[10] The Faint, Nintendo soundtrack music, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Atari Teenage Riot,^[3] The Mae Shi, Lightning Bolt^[18] and The Pastels.^[23] They were described by Terrorizer magazine as "[e]ither a council estate Butthole Surfers or just Japanese mimicry... odd and wrong",^[24] and by Drowned in Sound as "a chiptune-gabba aerobics class soundtrack".^[10] The Wire called them "prog, of a sort... though with manic impatience in place of pomposity",^[25] while Fused Magazine described them as "[t]wo subterranean creatures dressed in primary school P.E. kits, complete with charcoal-stained eyes and badly-concealed erections, howl[ing] unintelligibly over spaz-core electronics". The Daily Telegraph said they were "absurdly-named".^[26]

In an interview with Dazed & Confused magazine, the band characterised their own music as "filter pop", and "pop music with all the shit bits taken out: mostly no repetition, no wastage, and no fat".^[4]

Personnel

• Joe Howe – vocals, programming, synthesizer
• Lachlann Rattray – vocals, MIDI, electric guitar

Discography

Albums

• gay against you (self-released/Megapixxels, 2005)^[27]
• Muscle Milk (Adaadat, 2006)^[8]
• Live at last.fm/Presents (last.fm, 2007)^[9]
• Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes (ADAADAT/Upset the Rhythm!, 2009)

EPs

• Bogus Totem Summer (CD + DVD, self-released, 2006)
• gay against you/House Mouse Summer Tour Split (self-released, 2007)
• I Play Gay (self-released, 2009)

Singles

• The Vichy Government/Gay Against You split 7" (Filthy Little Angels, 2007)^[28]
• O.I.B Records Split Series Volume 1 7" (One Inch Badge, 2007)^[29]

Compilation appearances

• "Greased Lightning" on Down to Grease on Holiday (Filthy Little Angels, 2006)^[30]
• "Fun Meal, Satabic" on Exercise for Exorcisms, vol. 1 (Unnecessary Friction, 2006)^[31]
• "Magic Eye" on Two Thousand and Ace (Brainlove, 2008)
• "Let's Build a Chinatown pt. II" on Stench of Muscle (Stench of Muscle, 2008)

References

External links

• gay against you on Myspace
• gay against you on Bandcamp
• gay against you at Upset the Rhythm
• gay against you blog