GOBBLE GOBBLE

Artist Information

Biography

"One of the comp's standout tracks, "Wrinklecarver", comes from San Francisco-via-Canada's Gobble Gobble; the song features a highly catchy chiptuned melody and... enthusiastic singing... hyper-pop"
- PITCHFORK

"First off, visit the band’s MySpace page if you want to see psychedelically-swirling Furbies, marching snowmen and a pinwheel of hands. Oh yea, and this song is pretty wicked, too."
- NME

"There is nothing you can do to prepare for the body-vibrato-inducing onslaught of the 32-bit gravitron-pop that comprises GOBBLE GOBBLE."
- WEIRD CANADA

"DayGlo electro-pop... hyperactive... It sorta makes me think of a 32-bit Dismemberment Plan being quartered (not obnoxiously) by Dan Deacon."
- STEREOGUM

"There’s a charismatic, high kicking front man... three members in dresses fiddling with more pedals, banging on frying pans and an upside-down snare, and pounding a giant, heavy sack on the floor of Sneaky Dee’s, the audience going nuts the whole time. We’re going to be hearing a lot about this band in the near future."
- WAVELENGTH (Top 9 of 2009)

"GOBBLE GOBBLE transforms music into horrifyingly luminous bedlam. [They are] unquestionably going to take off."
- BEATROUTE

GOBBLE GOBBLE is a vulture of the spirit, tearing away at the carrion of the soul. GOBBLE GOBBLE lives on the faultline between suits and destitutes, and it is from this isolated perch, impelled by the terror of a dayjob and utterly prostrate beneath the looming monolith of abstracted death, that he gathered his eggs together, prepared the nest that would become their home and began carving words into their sides. This nest, set gingerly on teetering high-rise stilts, encircles the flesh fruit that make up his debut album Neon Graveyard.

Neon Graveyard is pop music, no doubt, but it is also something else: an oddly visceral, flamboyantly eccentric treatise on death. Sunny funeral siestas, ecstatic Nintendo eulogies, and effervescent burial anthems all feature prominently here, cohering remarkably with more pensive moments where fuzz threatens to spill over into shoegazing, and melancholy solo piano is overwhelmed and enveloped in digital static. Drawing clear influence from the genres of freak folk, chiptune, garage, modern classical and weirdo electronic, Neon Graveyard nevertheless evinces a sound that cannot clearly be tied to any particular antecedent. In stark contrast with its buoyant, lilting and at times even danceable atmosphere, the record is lyrically fixated on what to do with the body when it is dead or dying. Although it was birthed in the stark cityscape of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Neon Graveyard sounds like it was recorded in a nameless city, the bizarre bastard son of Baltimore, Victoria, and Portland.

Cecil Frena screamed and played guitar in hardcore bands until he blew out his throat, at which point pop music became a more appealing proposition. In 2006, he founded Push Pins and since then has brought all-ages pop and experimental shows to Edmonton. In 2008, he founded The Hydeaway All Ages Art Space, a new gallery and venue in downtown E-town that lets the kiddies enjoy tunes without fake ID.

Biography by Hannes Bezuidenhout

MYSPACE:
http://myspace.com/leatherjowels

Instrumentation

RECORDINGS:
Cecil Frena - All Instruments

LIVE BAND:
Cecil Frena - Vocals, Toys, Remix, Noise, Beeps
Calvin McElroy - Static, Shakers, Trumpet
Corin Roddick - Drum Pads, Broken Glass, Dance
Graham Nichol - Atari, Claves, Triangle
Megan James - Synth, Fuzz, Shred

Discography

Neon Graveyard LP (Self-Released, 06/16/2009)

Audio

• Wrinklecarver
  Listen  
• Lawn Knives
  Listen  
• End of Days
  Listen  
• Meteor Eschat
  Listen  
• o Sacred Dandruff
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Meteor Eschat
• o Sacred Dandruff
• Piles of Salt (Casket Cradles)
• Misericordia
• Mountain of Flesh
• Skin of Prophets
• Woodpact
• Alabaster Bodyworlds
• Born Stray
• Last Clumps / Feral Trapezoid

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Weird Canada [+ Show ]
  

  There is nothing you can do to prepare for the body-vibrato-inducing onslaught of the 32-bit gravitr...There is nothing you can do to prepare for the body-vibrato-inducing onslaught of the 32-bit gravitron-pop that comprises GOBBLE GOBBLE... The live show is a different entity in itself; brain-altering displays of fluorescence with wine-bottle percussion, fiber optics, and a lot of dancing.
  
  GOBBLE GOBBLE for president.

• Uptown Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  Gobble Gobble, the lo-fi weirdo experimental brainchild of Edmonton musician Cecil Frena, has releas...Gobble Gobble, the lo-fi weirdo experimental brainchild of Edmonton musician Cecil Frena, has released an album that's not for the faint of stomach. Neon Graveyard - Gobble Gobble's recently released full-length debut - is a dizzying collage of contrasting sounds: pure pop arrangements are buried under layers of electronic noise; singalong choruses are distorted and fuzzy; delicate piano solos are obscured by static.

• FFWD [+ Show ]
  

  "Guitars undulate around Game Boy bleeps, Rihanna-style synths blare as trash percussion crashes and..."Guitars undulate around Game Boy bleeps, Rihanna-style synths blare as trash percussion crashes and there are even appearances of cello, trombone and classical piano for those paying close attention. Over top of it all, Frena’s fuzzed-out vocals float along on instantly memorable melodies."

• Beatroute Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  GOBBLE GOBBLE transforms music into horrifyingly luminous bedlam. [It] is unquestionably going to ta...GOBBLE GOBBLE transforms music into horrifyingly luminous bedlam. [It] is unquestionably going to take off.

• CBC Bandeapart [+ Show ]
  

  Ils ont chacun des costumes aux couleurs vives, des bagues avec des lumières et des instruments fabr...Ils ont chacun des costumes aux couleurs vives, des bagues avec des lumières et des instruments fabriqués à la maison : des jouets pour enfants trafiqués branchés dans des échantillonneurs, des casseroles et des bouteilles de vitre comme percussions et un sac rempli de cossins que l'un deux frappe par terre. Ici encore, la foule danse, sourit. Gobble Gobble, ça fait qu'on se sent bien en dedans.

• The Musicgoer [+ Show ]
  

  "[Cecil Frena] has the voice of a mummy, the voice of a dying toy robot, a voice without a trace of ..."[Cecil Frena] has the voice of a mummy, the voice of a dying toy robot, a voice without a trace of saliva or phlegm in it... And yet, for all this, the album is surprisingly melodic, and bursting with sonic imagination. ... Decay was never this much fun: put it on, shed your skin, and dance around in your bones.
  
  [rated FOUR STARS]"

• Edmonton Sun [+ Show ]
  

  Speaking in generalities, pop music is meant to be sweet, simple and catchy. Edmonton's Gobble Gobbl...Speaking in generalities, pop music is meant to be sweet, simple and catchy. Edmonton's Gobble Gobble is all of those things, only marred by strange sounds from homemade instruments, a lyrical obsession with death, and layers of sickly static and distortion.

• EYE Weekly [+ Show ]
  

  [GOBBLE GOBBLE] puts the “freak” back in freak folk. Cecil Frena’s warbly, distortion-drenched vocal...[GOBBLE GOBBLE] puts the “freak” back in freak folk. Cecil Frena’s warbly, distortion-drenched vocals feature throughout, which, when combined with piano ballads, jaunty psych trance ditties and titles like “O Sacred Dandruff,” sounds like Black Moth Super Rainbow and Animal Collective jamming in 1987. But there’s a surprising amount of tunefulness here; the yodel-inflected falsetto on “Skin of Prophets” could give Patrick Watson a run for his art-pop.

• All The Best Things [+ Show ]
  

  Underneath the fuzzy vocals, bleeps, bloops and blips of Comcast’s past lies the melody of the next ...Underneath the fuzzy vocals, bleeps, bloops and blips of Comcast’s past lies the melody of the next greatest club bomb.

• Fear of Music [+ Show ]
  

  What [GOBBLE GOBBLE] has yielded with Neon Graveyard is a touching, often funny, often intelligent, ...What [GOBBLE GOBBLE] has yielded with Neon Graveyard is a touching, often funny, often intelligent, and ever affecting record. Brilliant stuff.
  
  (Named Album of the Week)

Setlist

Set length can range from 20-50 minutes as required. Covers are generally not performed. A typical set might include any of the following originals:

- Meteor Eschat
- o Sacred Dandruff
- Ash Fountain
- Piles of Salt
- Misericordia
- Mountain of Flesh
- Skin of Prophets
- Woodpact
- Alabaster Bodyworlds
- Born Stray
- Eggs in Carrion
- Feral Trapezoid

Basic Requirements

Calendar