Ganglians were a Sacramento psychedelic/lo-fi garage-pop band, repeatedly described in Submerge as one of the city's "beloved" hometown acts and a hallmark of the late-2000s Sacramento garage scene.[1][2] The group is consistently identified as local — "Sacramento's psychedelic acid pop act" and "Sacramento's own" — making it local by origin despite touring nationally and internationally.[3][4][2]
At a glance
- Origin: Sacramento, CA; began roughly three-and-a-half years before mid-2011, i.e. circa 2007–2008, in the attic of a Sacramento house.[3]
- Lineup: Ryan Grubbs (vocals/frontman), Kyle Hoover (guitar), Alex Sowles (drums), Adrian Comenzind (bass).[3]
- Sound: "fun, catch-y, space-y/psychedelic garage-rock"; compared to Thee Oh Sees, Wavves and the Beach Boys.[5]
- Labels associated: Woodsist, Lefse, Captured Tracks, Souterrain Transmissions (Europe).[5][3]
- Key releases: self-titled debut EP and Monster Head Room (2009); Still Living double LP (2011).[3]
- Became an official showcasing artist at SXSW 2012 in Austin, TX.[5]
Origin and local status
Ganglians formed in Sacramento, beginning (as of an August 2011 interview) "three-and-a-half years ago" in "the attic of a Sacramento house," placing the start around 2007–2008.[3] Before the band took the Ganglians name, its members — Adrian Comenzind, Kyle Hoover, and Alex Sowles — were playing together under the name Psychic Kindergarten. According to the Sacramento News & Review, Ryan Grubbs first encountered the group while walking home from his job at Tamaya Sushi on J Street in Midtown; he heard them playing in an attic at J and 23rd Streets and the band coalesced from there.[6]
Submerge consistently frames the band as a hometown act: "Sacramento's psychedelic acid pop act Ganglians," "Sacramento's beloved garage rock band," and "Sacramento's own Ganglians."[3][2][7] When the band's home base was listed for a 2011 Submerge showcase, it read "Sacramento, Calif."[5] Frontman Ryan Grubbs is described as a Montana native, but the band itself is unambiguously a Sacramento-origin group, and members later scattered from Sacramento (San Francisco, Brooklyn, Oakland, Elk Grove) only after the band wound down.[3][7]
The band's identity was tied to Midtown Sacramento; their 2009 album Monster Head Room was characterized in Submerge's year-end list as "the record that encompassed Midtown life," and Grubbs described songs on Still Living as reflective of day-to-day life in Sacramento (he likened the "city of trees" to an "urban jungle" in describing the single "Jungle").[8][3]
Members
The four-piece lineup was Ryan Grubbs (vocals/frontman), Kyle Hoover (guitar), Alex Sowles (drums) and Adrian Comenzind (bass).[3] Grubbs and Hoover were the band's primary creative voices and did most of the talking in a 2011 Submerge interview; Grubbs and Hoover had known each other since 2008, bonding over a shared love of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, an influence Hoover called "super evident" in Ganglians.[3][9] Hoover later recalled that the members were not trained or studio musicians — they "just kind of picked up the instruments" — a self-taught approach Grubbs also emphasized.[3]
Between the two albums, bassist Adrian Comenzind briefly quit the band. During that same period, Kyle Hoover and Alex Sowles pursued a side project called Fine Steps, formed with former Mayyors drummer Julian Elorduy.[10]
Releases and sound
Ganglians released a self-titled debut EP and the full-length Monster Head Room in 2009; Monster Head Room came out on Woodsist.[3][8] Submerge's 2009 year-end list ranked Monster Head Room at No. 10, praising its "grooving surf-rock riffs and supple vocal harmonies."[8] Pitchfork gave Monster Head Room an 8.1 out of 10 — reported at the time as the highest rating Pitchfork had ever given a Sacramento band.[11] Gorilla vs. Bear placed the album among the top 25 records of 2009, and by late that year multiple prominent labels were courting the band, among them Jagjaguwar, 4AD, Captured Tracks, Fat Cat, and Secretly Canadian.[12]
In September 2009, Ganglians toured North America for the first time, opening for Wavves on a 40-plus-day run.[13]
The band's sound was characterized as psychedelic/lo-fi, "psych pop," and garage-rock, with stereophonic, headphone-oriented production the band had toyed with since 2009.[3] Notably, the members rejected the "lo-fi" label as an intention: Hoover said they "never intended to be lo-fi" and that Monster Head Room "was definitely intended to be a hi-fi record, it just wasn't there," a sentiment he repeated in 2015 — "With Ganglians, we were always trying to be hi-fi; it just always sounded lo-fi because we didn't know what the fuck we were doing."[3][9]
For their second album, the band worked with Sacramento producer Raleigh Moncrief, who told Submerge in early 2011 that the new material was "borderline hi-fi," more textural and "subtle" psych than the older work. They recorded 14 songs, 11–12 of which made the cut.[14] According to the Sacramento News & Review, Still Living was recorded at Hangar Studios in downtown Sacramento with producer Robby Moncrieff between August 2010 and February 2011, with production financed by European label Souterrain Transmissions.[15] The resulting double LP, Still Living, was released Aug. 23, 2011 via Lefse Records (and Souterrain Transmissions in Europe).[3] Lead single "Jungle" arrived in April 2011 with a colorful, Play-Doh-prosthetic music video (debuting in May) that drew online buzz from Pitchfork and Fader; a second single, "Sleep," followed as a free download in July.[3] Submerge ranked Still Living No. 2 on its 2011 Top 20, calling the band "Sacramento's psych rockers" and noting the "Beach Boys sound meshed with unexpected twists, ballads and tribal rumbles."[4]
Touring and live presence
Ganglians toured nationally and internationally. By August 2010 they had returned from a European tour, playing a homecoming/DIY 7-inch-release show in Sacramento (alongside G. Green and touring teens Fungi Girls) at an "undisclosed location"; that set included a then-new song "My House" and "Crying Smoke," plus a closing request, "Voodoo."[1] In support of Still Living, the band launched an August 2011 West Coast tour beginning Aug. 10 (with a Sacramento date at Luigi's Fungarden), at a time when Grubbs had been living in San Francisco.[3] Ganglians were named an official showcasing artist at SXSW 2012 in Austin.[5]
Locally, the band performed at Submerge's 100th Issue Party at Ace of Spades on Dec. 16, 2011 (a bill that also included Sister Crayon, Tera Melos, Zuhg, Early States, and Random Abiladeze with DJ Rated R), and at the Verge Center for the Arts "Verge Ahead" party on Jan. 21, 2012 alongside Fine Steps, MOM, Gentleman Surfer and others.[5][16]
Breakup and successor band (Tiaras)
The band wound down in 2011. Hoover later said they "stopped playing together after our last SXSW," around spring 2011, after roughly a year and a half of near-constant touring left them worn out and arguing.[9] The members dispersed: Grubbs moved to San Francisco, the drummer (Sowles) to Brooklyn, the bassist to Oakland, and Hoover was "stuck in Elk Grove" at his dad's house before saving up to move in with Grubbs in San Francisco.[9]
Grubbs and Hoover went on to form Tiaras, a San Francisco rock outfit also drawing members from Blasted Canyons and Fine Steps.[2][9] Tiaras deliberately moved away from Ganglians' "wild, heat-shimmery psych pop" toward a moodier mid-'80s jangle-pop and new wave sound; their self-titled debut came out Jan. 14, 2015.[2] Submerge repeatedly framed Tiaras as featuring "ex-Ganglians" / "ex-members of Sacramento's beloved garage rock band Ganglians."[7][2][17] An earlier 2013 incarnation of TIARAS — described as partly ex-Ganglians and ex-Fine Steps, fronted by Kyle Hoover — opened for Youth Lagoon at Harlow's on Aug. 9, 2013.[7]
Scene relationships
Ganglians sat at the center of a tight Sacramento/Bay Area garage-and-psych network documented across Submerge:
- Raleigh Moncrief — Sacramento producer who recorded Still Living; Submerge noted he crafted his own solo record (Watered Lawn, Anticon, 2011) between sessions with Ganglians and others.[14][18]
- Robby Moncrieff — Sacramento producer (and Bitte Orca contributor) whose work "with locals Ganglians and Appetite" was cited by Portland band BRAINSTORM; G. Green also referenced his Ganglians work when hiring him.[19][20]
- G. Green — shared bills with Ganglians (including a house show with Kurt Vile and Eat Skull); the bands ran in the same DIY/Hub-show circuit.[1][19]
- Fine Steps / Blasted Canyons — supplied members to the successor band Tiaras.[2]
- Ganglians' name recurs in Submerge's annual best-of lists, marking them as a fixture of the local canon alongside Tera Melos, Death Grips and Sister Crayon.[8][4][5]