Do you enjoy musical groups with a bevy of multi-talented members? Yes! Do you indulge in your favorite musicians’ side-projects? Indeed! Do you dig Bon Iver? Naturally! Do you groove to jazzy, extended, eighties-style, spaced out jams? Why not! If you answered all of the above in similar fashion, then GAYNGS (yes, all caps) should be the new musical crew doin’ work for you, son.
Consisting of no less than twenty musicians, with such varied musical talents as Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Minnesota MC P.O.S., founder Ryan Olson, and Andrew Bird’s saxophonist Michael Lewis, GAYNGS’ single, “The Gaudy Side of Town,” is a slow, controlled burn fueled by Olson’s vocals, Lewis’ silky sax, and Vernon’s backing vocals. Faint beat boxing, electric crackles, and reverb harmonies swirl apart and come together as the song builds to an apex it never quite seems to reach. Imagine yourself surrounded by the night, in a seedy neighborhood, drenched in neon lights, on a bar stool, sipping cheap beer, watching the ne’er-do-wells pass by through an iron grated window at the front of a dive bar. This is your soundtrack.