Guerilla Toss Tap Trey Anastasio for “Red Flag to Angry Bull,” Previewing Stephen Malkmus-Produced ‘You’re Weird Now’
Guerilla Toss, photo by Ebru Yildiz
Guerilla Toss have returned with “Red Flag to Angry Bull,” the second preview from their sixth studio album, You’re Weird Now. Set to release on Sept. 12 via Sub Pop, the New York-based avant-garde psych-punk ensemble’s latest offering makes good use of their ever-expanding Rolodex of high-profile fans: Trey Anastasio shreds on the new single and provided his Vermont recording facility The Barn for studio sessions, while Stephen Malkmus provides backing vocals and produced the album. Crossings with those icons and more renewed the band’s focus and confidence, which primed them for some of their most inventive and powerful work yet.
“His incredibly relatable down to earth approach to music and trusting yourself as an artist had a massive effect on this album and myself as a musician,” Guerilla Toss frontwoman Kassie Carlson said of refining the album’s sound with the Pavement frontman. “Working with Malkmus, Bryce Goggin, Trey Anastasio, touring with Primus—all of that made me realize that what I’m doing is not wrong. The work is clear, important, and necessary. It’s not always easy or clear in direction or purpose, but creating, making, performing music is vital to my life, and a healthy earth.”
“Red Flag to Angry Bull” is the long-impending first recorded collaboration between Malkmus and Anastasio, and their combined expertise meshes perfectly in a shimmering, sauntering, blissed-out and very ‘90s anthem. Both Malkmus’s vocals at the chorus and Anastasio’s bent, shapeshifting solo are unmistakable, providing strong complements to Guerilla Toss’s gleefully disruptive style. The eclectic influences zipping through the track–characterized by the band as a “‘We Are the World’ style hot-boxed-dad-rock ballad”–are artfully meshed by longtime Phish and Pavement engineers Ben Collette and Bryce Goggins, with mixing from fellow psych-punk pathbreaker Jorge Elbrecht.
You’re Weird Now is available to pre-order now. Watch the hypnotic animated visualizer for “Red Flag to Angry Bull” below, and learn more about Guerilla Toss at guerillatoss.com.
You’re Weird Now – Guerilla Toss:
01 “Krystal Ball”
02 “Psychosis Is Just a Number”
03 “CEO of Personal & Pleasure”
04 “Life’s A Zoo”
05 “Red Flag To Angry Bull”
06 “Panglossian Mannequin”
07 “Deep Sight”
08 “When Dogs Bark”
09 “Crocodile Cloud”
10 “Favorite Sun”
