Cassette Review: G. Gordon Gritty "Still Not A Musician"

[$6 // Edition of 50 // https://gbgordon.bandcamp.com/album/still-not-a-musician]

While I fully understand that G. Gordon Gritty is a play on words, I must refer to him as Triple G from here on out simply because it feels like it gives him some street cred.    If you're curious about the title of this cassette there is also a cassette from about three years ago with the title "I'm Not A Musician", something I definitely need to listen to now.

With high pitched vocals and clanky chaos there is just a lot going on here musically, as Triple G takes us through some trippy lo-fi.   Elements of psych come out and there are just crazy guitar riffs through the distortion and fuzz.  If you're wondering whether there is a difference between "distortion" and "fuzz" there in fact is and Triple G uses them both.   These songs make me think of this in terms of a singer/songwriter and yet they have that full band sound to them.   In that way it does remind me of the more-recently listened to cassette by Eggs on Mars and perhaps they should do a split or tour together.

Drum crashes bring out a sound that I imagine a jam band would make though I haven't actually ever heard a jam band as far as I know and I intend to keep it that way.   I hear this riff in the background of a song about religion (sort of) and it reminds me of "When the Saints Go Marching In", which then brings this around to thoughts of The Wiggins as well.   These guitar riffs just come out so smoothly that at times they can by hypnotic.    On song 15- "Life To Its Fullest"- a guest emcee pays a visit and I'm telling you, Johnny, Triple G hits HARD.   Before Side A comes to a close there is a song with the line "When you were young you used to stutter" which is an absolutely absurd lyric to get stuck in my head but there it is.

Electronic beats a few songs into Side B and we're off to more fuzzy garage, a song about making brownies which isn't code for pooping, crazy electric guitars and then clanky guitars and whistles.   With all of the various songs on here, you are going to hear many different things in this general sense of purpose I've explained but you'll like it all.    This is definitely not short on supply of killer guitar riffs and reasons to sing along.

Back when I was a teenager- and I'm talking maybe fifteen or sixteen- I started playing the electric guitar.   At the time, you really had to do something cool to be recognized as a musician because recording something resembling a demo meant getting money for studio time.   In the way that the cassette broke the barrier on the records by being able to record onto it, music has evolved now to the point where you could use your cell phone as your home studio.   I enjoy this immensely because it no longer leaves recording musicians as a sense of being elite (Remember, money does not buy talent) and people like Triple G can come out and shine.    

In my day, I wasn't really able to record demos, though there are some cassettes out there somewhere I might find at my parents' house, and I can only imagine how many others were in the same situation and thus went on to get jobs in other fields because their musical talent went unnoticed.    Be happy for the time in which you are alive people because just about anyone can make music and while that seems like it would open the doors for a lot of terrible music (And, yeah, that's in my Recycle Bin) it also opens the door for a lot of talented musicians like Triple G.