Famously Alive (First Pressing Purple Vinyl)

Dig deep enough inside yourself start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.

Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID 19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. ‘You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,’ she says. ‘I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people.’

The album’s title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman , who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self acceptance.