| gay against you | |
| Origin: | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Genre: | electronic, experimental, pop |
| Years Active: | – |
| Label: | Adaadat Upset The Rhythm |
| Associated Acts: | Germlin Yoko, Oh No! Ben Butler and Mousepad Neighbourhood Gout |
| Past Members: | Joe Howe Lachlann Rattray |
Gay Against You (stylized as gay against you[1] or GVsY) were an electronic music duo from Glasgow, Scotland, made up of high school friends Joseph Howe (aka Oats Soda)[2] and Lachlann Rattray (aka Mr. Big Softie).[2]
The band formed in 2005 after Howe and Rattray moved into a shared flat,[3] having previously played together in various other bands.[4] They self-released a mini-album,[5] also named gay against you, in 2005. It became one of the most frequently downloaded records from the last.fm website.[6] The following year their debut full-length album, Muscle Milk, was released by the Adaadat label.[7]
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.[8] 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.[9]
gay against you toured the United Kingdom several times, also touring Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe.[10] They played gigs with the likes of Lightning Bolt, Dan Deacon, Shitdisco, No Age, Cutting Pink With Knives, The Blow and Eats Tapes.[6] They recorded radio sessions for Tom Ravenscroft's Channel 4 Radio show[11] and for Vic Galloway's "BBC Introducing in Scotland" show on BBC Radio 1.[12] They were also played by Radio 1's Rob da Bank and Steve Lamacq, and on Resonance FM.[6]
A rumour spread in the Norwegian press that the NME had called gay against you "the new shit",[13] 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.[14]
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,[15] sometimes accompanied by drummer Bastian Hagedorn. Rattray has also performed and released as Yoko, Oh No!,[1] [5] [16] as well as playing in the band Neighbourhood Gout.[3]
The band gained attention for their flamboyant[3] and chaotic live shows[17] (often played with Howe and Rattray dressed in PE kits[9] [18] and on the venue's dancefloor rather than the stage[19] [20]), prominent visual style,[3] [9] offbeat subject matter (with songs about unicorns,[21] lactose intolerance,[22] Lawrence of Arabia, breakfast cereal,[1] Magic Eye puzzles,[8] Jurassic Park and physicist Niels Bohr[10]) and their diverse and experimental musical style. Their early work was noted as combining accessible pop melodies with unconventional, rapidly changing song structures[2] 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.[9]
Stated influences included Magma, Minutemen,[10] Devo, Cardiacs and BBC Radio 4.[1] The band garnered comparisons to artists such as The Locust, Melt-Banana, Animal Collective,[9] The Faint, Nintendo soundtrack music, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Atari Teenage Riot,[2] The Mae Shi, Lightning Bolt[16] and The Pastels.[22] They were described by Terrorizer magazine as "[e]ither a council estate Butthole Surfers or just Japanese mimicry... odd and wrong",[23] and by Drowned in Sound as "a chiptune-gabba aerobics class soundtrack".[9] The Wire called them "prog, of a sort... though with manic impatience in place of pomposity",[24] 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".[25]
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".[3]
