The Gooeys bring bubble gum to the garage
“I completely suck at sounding like ‘now’” Craig Storm admits. He’s employing his trademark self-deprecation a manner of speaking he uses both in person and onstage under his solo moniker the Monroeville Music Center and more recently with The Gooeys. Still behind his less-than-confident tone are often nuggets of truth. “I learned guitar playing along to the Ventures’ and the Munsters’ theme. I learned organ trying to sound like gospel and Halloween records and learned bass trying to emulate ’60s garage.”
Its less-than-2011 approach is a major plus for The Gooeys however as the group’s sugary sweet bubble-gum pop and timeless garage dynamics work in an era-less vacuum. Still with such a delightful blend it comes as a surprise that Storm stumbled upon this sound almost by accident.
The project kicked off early last year when Storm was recording demos for his former band Weird Shits using a four-track app on his iPhone a method of songwriting he still uses today. Deeming the poppy material “too sissy” for the group he uploaded them to the web under the name The Gooeys.
“I suppose a ’60s garage bubble-gum-ish psych sort of thing is what I was after” he says. “I think I’m experimenting to see what would happen if Jayne County Davie Allan Bill Wyman Archie Andrews and Shirley Jones could hang out sometime.”
From there Topless Mongos guitarist Devon Giancarlo got in touch to sign up for the full band and was soon followed by Storm’s Weird Shits bandmates Ivo Musa and Darrell Hartsook along with keyboardist Shauna Luedtke. Musa recently left the project and was replaced by Faux Fur’s Jean Audet making this a true who’s-who of Calgary music.
The band played its first show at Tubby Dog earlier this year and instantly caught the attention of Lethbridge’s Mammoth Cave Recording Co. which recorded the group’s debut 7-inch Scary Black Cherry Nap in one day at label co-owner Paul Lawton’s home studio. “I think I might have weirded the others out a bit because I was kind of micromanaging every choice and asking them to do another take and tweaking organ knobs and stuff” Storm says.
Despite a healthy amount of buzz for the debut 7-inch The Gooeys likely won’t be hitting the road as hard as some of their peers as Storm is a father of three with a real-life adult job.
“I probably can’t tour for a month at a time” he admits. “But apart from maybe Devon I don’t think anyone else can either. Shauna’s got a swell job Jean’s got school Darrell’s got his emerging shoe warehouse stocking business. The minivan’s helpful though.”
With that in mind Storm is just enjoying the project each step of the way as he continues to write more off-kilter garage pop tunes and plans releases. He even takes the time to enjoy our interview in his classic self-effacing tone. “This is fun. Until I read it I guess and sound like a dick…. Ahh well. You are what you eat I always say.”
