To call a musician thoughtful is a meaningless phrase. You would hope anyone who makes art is putting some degree of mental power into it. But, in talking to Mynor Gonzalez, the singer and guitarist of pop punk band, The Grool Brothers, the word thoughtful becomes unavoidable. Many of the choices on the new EP, Imposter, are intentional. The first track is filled with layer upon layer of vocal tracks, creating a gang-vocal effect that is much indebted to Iron Chic’s entire discography.
Across thirteen different selections via a Spotify playlist, Mynor has provided us with a variety of different bands he was listening to or was influenced while making the new EP. Some are local bands that he has befriended. Others are bands that he wrote off for whatever irrational reason Others, like Iron Chic and Mock Orange, he discovered many years ago and is still influenced by them to this day.
Hospital Job — “Tried It All, Trying Again”
Most albums I like have a pretty strong intro. I have this weird obsession with songs that keep the same vibe from beginning to end. It’s pretty much what this song does. That album (Never Get Cold) is pretty much all I’ve been listening to. I love the vocals, the layers, and the distance to it.
Latterman — “Fear and Loathing On Long Island”
I’ve admired Latterman for so long. Anything they can do anyone can do. It’s so great because they did it so well. They recorded their own albums. We recorded Imposter by ourselves in my basement. When we were recording I thought, “I’m going to record a song like fucking Latterman.”
Bong Mountain — “26 Caroline”
In 2016, right before FEST, Bong Mountain pulled me out of a huge rut. That entire year I wasn’t listening to anything besides Rozwell Kid and Diarrhea Planet. Bong Mountain came along and I immediately recognized it was Chris from Cain Marko. I’m a big fan of Chris’s vocals and I’m always trying to emulate his thing.
Swearin’ — “Grow Into a Ghost”
For a while I used to get annoyed by the constant “I watch you. I watch you.” “Is she saying chiwawa?” After a while I said, “This song is so fucking good.” I saw them two weeks ago and they blew my mind. It’s mostly two chords and they do it so well. They keep it interesting with little things. The song has a good push-pull.
Mock Orange — “Brake Lights On”
I listened to nine & sixes non stop for a year and thought “let’s see what else they got.” Heard Brake Lights On and it just punches you in the face immediately. I’m always channeling my inner mock orange. “What’s the hardest thing I can do while I’m singing?” That whole album is golden. I started listening to it 10 years ago and haven’t stopped.
Frankie Cosmos — “If I Had a Dog”
Another band I saw at Lincoln Hall that blew my mind. I’ve seen Frankie Cosmos twice. I think both times it was the best performance I’ve ever seen. Everything is in unison and clean. That drum tone on that entire album is what I try to emulate every time I record. Next Thing is just good songwriting. Anyone who loves Frankie Cosmos has such a tough time explaining it. It’s so stripped down but it’s so good.
Rust Ring — “Finally”
I met Joram in January (2017) through Snort. Then, I started going out to shows in the city. Rust Ring played my basement in June (of 2017). I met Bill Covert and Kyle Geib. I hit it off with them. They shook my whole house.
Joram is such a good instrumentalist. They all are. One thing I like in a lot of music is to “impress me, but don’t try hard to impress me. Do your thing and if it’s going to be good, it’s going to be good. They’re not going look how good we are. It is just all together, along with catchiness and sing along parts.”
Iron Chic — “Time Keeps on Slipping Into the (Cosmic) Future”
I think Iron Chic was the first time I started listening to pop punk that wasn’t the cliched “oh a girl broke up with me I’m so mad.” It was my first experience with that post-Wonder Years. We’ve always wanted to do the layered vocals and Iron Chic obviously does that well. If you have a crowd of people sing Iron Chic lyrics together it just makes sense. I like that feeling. One thing I was trying not to do was a “oh i’m a big tough guy with gang vocals.” It is just a way to add dynamics to the vocals. Iron Chic pulls that off along with high riffs and simple drums.
Boss Fight — “Daffodills”
One thing I learned about Boss Fight through Jaclyn Nora (Mollow), is they do the same thing as the Grool Brothers do. We write the music to our songs with zero lyrics and zero vocals. We keep it that way for however long. When we need lyrics, I write lyrics.I think that’s how Boss Fight speaks to a person like me. “We’re going to focus on the music first.” Lyrics usually matter but they are the lowest on the chain. I don’t want to write good lyrics to a bad song. All four of us don’t usually listen to the same shit. The one thing we were all super into was Boss Fight.
Rozwell Kid — “Halloween 3.5”
Andrew (Grool Brothers guitarist) is very much a rock and roll guy. Anytime he gets a chance to see Judas Priest, he fucking goes to see Judas Priest. What happens is Andrew comes in with a song that is totally not a Grool Brothers song. What I do is try to channel my inner Rozwell Kid. I grab his heavy rock and roll shit and try to punk it up.
Distants — “To Roost”
Alex Angus is just a very good songwriter. They have verses that is just a riff harmonizing. They don’t really like choruses. Choruses are a bigger challenge to me. I feel like a chorus has to be really good to be a chorus. Working with Alex on that Halloween cover band (Lookout Records), I saw a lot of where his influences come from. It was cool to see what was going on in his head in another perspective.
Eradicator — “Wake, Hydrate, Baby Aspirin, Squash A Pusshead, Stretch, Sleep, Repeat”
I saw the eradicator at Subterranean with Bong Mountain in 2017. The reason I went was to see Bong Mountain. My friend Traci told me the whole gimmick of the eradicator. “I’m going to hate this. This is going to suck.” My mind was blown! That was a case of me eating my words with some of my cynical thoughts. There is a gimmick to it, but it’s really good and well done.
Hard Girls — “Dizzy Wizard”
I had known about Hard Girls for years. I had heard the name and said, “I don’t really care.” Tim Crisp did a best of 2017 for the Better Yet Podcast. He was talking about his albums of the year. One of them was Floating Now by Hard Girls. I was sitting at my desk and said, “what is this?” There is a lot of starts and stops. It’s got a very smiths-esque thing going on. The guitar is doing something cool, but that is not the focus.