Last Updated on August 1, 2022, 11:50 AM | Published: July 26, 2022
Like the string quartet that played as the Titanic went down, OKC psych-rockers Gonzo LeBronzo are here to provide a soundtrack to the sinking world.
As dire as that sounds, the band’s intention isn’t to waltz through a foregone conclusion with apathetic abandon, however, but to provide the kick-in-the-pants energy needed to fight.
The trio seems to have little interest in the drugged-out, detached affectations of so many of the recent leading voices of rock music, taking their cues instead from the grunge and post-punk acts that focused so intently on the dread and urgency that followed the gross excess of the 1980s.
The result is “Collapse Ecstatic,” the band’s frantic, frenzied debut full-length album, dropping July 31st following a hotly anticipated release show at 51st St. Speakeasy alongside Klamz and Em & the Mother Superiors on Friday, July 29th.
Gonzo LeBronzo (comprised of drummer Grant Marshall, bassist Shawn Stafford, and high-intensity singer/guitarist David Hanon) dropped a fantastically auspicious demo back in December 2019 before debuting on stage to a packed Speakeasy crowd in February 2020. They were poised to be one of the most buzzed-about new OK bands, with a ripping, energetic live show and unpredictable sound.
About a month later, COVID took the wind clean out of their sails.
Luckily, rather than succumb to the pandemic like too many other sadly departed acts, they used the unexpected downtime to refine their sound, write loads of new material, and prepare an official full-length debut album that could serve as a reintroduction to the scene even bolder than their first time out.
And of course those intervening years came with no shortage of inspiration.
Irrepressibly political and blunt as ever, Hanon’s lyrics throughout “Collapse Ecstatic” take aim squarely at the selfishness and greed on full display throughout the continuing pandemic, and paint a picture of the devastation likely to be left behind it. Declarations of “America in ruins,” “the world on fire,” and “your money is worthless,” all make appearances in turn, and though there is a fair bit of sardonic bite in the delivery, none of it ever comes across as ironic or tongue-in-cheek. This is serious. They’re telling you that the sky really is falling this time.
And yet, for all the doom, gloom, and rage, the band’s music surprisingly avoids falling into something you might easily call “punk” or “metal.”
This is rock.
There’s an inherent bluesy swagger that calls up Jack White, but the most easily drawn parallel is surely to Queens of the Stone Age, with the same sense of driving, weirdo urgency and uptempo rock n roll experimentation.
For all the full-volume rock and high-energy riffing, though, a huge dose of creative production elevates “Collapse Ecstatic” firmly into “headphone album” territory. Multi-tracked guitars and vocals swirl from ear to ear and into the stratosphere, like the acrobatic double lead licks on “Airlock,” thanks primarily to Michael Trepagnier at Cardinal Song Studios, and the band’s friend Christian Mirande, who they say helped out with “effects/tapelooping/interstitial weirdo sounds.”
All of these elements comes together at once to form centerpiece “Tear it Apart,” a pounding, near-punk track of such unbridled and unrestrained energy that it threatens to run away or explode completely.
The track serves as a sonic representation of the album’s lyrical content, offering up what could be the sound of the total societal – and mental – collapse. When it finally does fall apart under its own weight, it immediately morphs into a wholly unexpected, funky electro break, as if to imply that when the collapse finally comes, it may well leave nothing but a sterile, digital world in its wake.
Appropriately, the album’s official release into the world will happen back at 51st St. Speakeasy, where Gonzo LeBronzo first crashed the gates back in the naïve, potential-filled days of early-2020.
This time, they come armed with an album’s worth of hard rock requiems for that old world, and of warnings for what we have left of the new one.
“Collapse Ecstatic” by Gonzo LeBronzo drops on streaming services and Bandcamp Sunday, July 31st. 51st St. Speakeasy will host the band for their official album release show and party Friday, July 29th with Klamz and Em and the Mother Superiors.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
