It’s incredible to think that GGOOLLDD has only been around for two years. Originally intended to be a playful project that would dissolve after its inaugural show in an East Side attic three Halloweens ago, the group decided to keep playing, and has quickly made an indelible mark on Milwaukee music. Even crazier than the electro-pop project’s rapid rise to consciousness in Cream City and well beyond is the fact such quick growth was accomplished through just a handful of songs. Last year’s $TANDARD$ was a formidable four-pack of intensely infectious numbers, as were subsequent single “Boyz” and the small batch of demos and remixes included with it on the small-run cassette.
While GGOOLLDD’s body of recorded work is small, most anyone who has seen the outfit headline a heft of summer festivals, threaten fire codes at various area venues, lend local support to respected touring talent, or captivate out-of-town audiences can confirm there’s not only more music to be released, it’s arguably even better than the material that came before it. The release of For The Night (out November 6) not only finds the GGOOLLDD catalog growing by four songs, it also sees the band’s sonic reach spreading to exciting new places.
The recording of For The Night was split between an Appleton basement studio of Matthew Schmitz, the East Side home studio of Jared Guess (The Gazettiers), and a shared Walker’s Point artist space. “Even though we consider those spaces ‘studios,’ this album was still a bedroom recording session, to the extreme though,” GGOOLLDD guitarist Tony Hunt says. When it came time to mix and produce the long-labored songs, Hunt—citing the group’s “perfectionist” ways—sifted through more than 100 instrumental and vocal tracks on some songs before settling on a final mix. What emerged is a quartet of sleek and synth-drenched numbers that are propelled to new levels with lush production, subtle implementation of electronic accents, live band backing, and, of course, the enchanting voice of Margaret Butler (especially evident on the absolutely infectious “All Night”). “I really wanted to take this EP and showcase the full band sound we’ve developed over the last year and half of playing shows,” Hunt says.
Before GGOOLLDD releases For The Night tomorrow, and officially celebrates its release with Canopies and Rio Turbo at Turner Hall on January 9, (use code GGOOLLDD at checkout for a free digital copy of the EP), stream the up and coming act’s long-awaited follow-up, only at Milwaukee Record.