“We cover a lot of bases.”
Releasing an EP, a full-length, and heading out on tour all in a matter of months is no easy feat. Boston five-piece Guillermo Sexo, comprised of singer/guitarist Reuben Bettsak, singer/keyboardist Noell Dorsey, bassist Elliott Anderson, drummer Ryan Connelly, and guitarist Richard Murillo, know exactly how to juggle their plate–and soundboard–with satisfactory results.
“Life circumstances have had past members moving for jobs or family, but it’s just going to keep going,” said Bettsak as he, Anderson, and I talked over drinks at Sweetwater Tavern about the band’s lineup changes.
“Guillermo Sexo is really a vehicle for the songs.”
Do yourself a favor and forget about genres. Guillermo Sexo is brilliantly all over the map when it comes to their tracks. Connelly brings a metal intensity to the drums, whereas Dorsey’s experimental interests tie it all together.
“We cover a lot of bases,” Bettsak said,
and one listen through their album makes it clear there’s no single song on there that can represent their whole sound.
With the help of producer Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Thurston Moore, Speedy Ortiz), seven-minute songs and multi-layered tracks see more depth, quality, and attitude than their past records. “I love the art of making an album,” Bettsak explained, “and we spent a lot of time on the sequence of these songs. We stepped back and let Justin take over the engineering, though. He knows what he’s doing.”
As a band that’s been around since 2005, a number of inside jokes have inevitably formed, including “Meow Metal,” an intense epic that plays off 2010’s “Puppy to Rock.”
“It was a temporary title that wound up sticking,” Bettsak laughed. “I used to work on a TV show on Animal Planet, and my life was like working with dogs and then going to band practice. Since I worked on Cats 101 as well as Dogs 101, ‘Meow Metal’ was a follow-up joke name.”
Their new album, Dark Spring, has influences from “noisy stuff like Sonic Youth or psychedelic, older things like The Kinks,” said Bettsak. The album release show will draw friends and fans to The Middle East Upstairs to hear a new, combined sound. “Elliott has this subtle, almost simple thing going where his bass lines are cleaner and keep things grounded. Then Noell, of course, just thinks in a totally different way … We all have different backgrounds, so a lot is brought to the table.”
Perhaps the best part of Guillermo Sexo’s sound is the familiarity of the vocals.
Dorsey sounds like Stereolab, or Belle & Sebastian at a cabaret rock show, showing an impressive control and awareness over her sound.
“Noell is really conscious about being original,” said Bettsak. “With her, she gets concerned about doing melodies that have been done before, even when I’m like, ‘It’s rock n’ roll—it’s gonna happen!’”
And on the new record, it definitely did.
GUILLERMO SEXO
W/ BOOGIE BOY METAL MOUTH, DOZE, MARCONI
SUNDAY 9.29.13
THE MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS
480 MASS. AVE.
CENTRAL SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE
7PM/18+/$10
@GUILLERMOSEXO
MIDEASTCLUB.COM
