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Music

By George, The By Gods' New EP 'Phone Calls' Is Exactly What We Needed

If the phrase “go in the direction of your dreams” has any weight to The By Gods, then, by god, I hope they do.

Photo courtesy of The By Gods

Have you ever wished that, in a different universe, Weezer didn’t change very much after the Blue album, with Rivers singing in his perfect, monotone, sad boy voice?

I'm sure you have: Who hasn't? You're hard pressed to find someone who thinks Weezer's post-Blue musical excursion was as good. But before you reach for your vinyls and tissues, check out this band. You might find yourself a little more at ease.

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The By Gods are George Pauley (vocals, guitar), Tye Hammonds (drums) and Natalie Pauley (bassist, vocals). They hail from Nashville, and if you know anything about that town, you know you need talent to just make it there, let alone launch a career.

Phone Calls, their first EP and second collaboration with Natalie, is a collection of four mellow-tone garage pop songs that blend everything you loved about post-punk. “Phone Calls” is a song of longing, desperation, and isolation. It calls to mind those wee hours of the morning, when you’ve had just enough to drink that “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum becomes less of a song and more of a directive. “Good Lie” is a cuttingly sarcastic ode to overly positive social media posts because everyone knows how annoying those are. The By Gods are over them; maybe you should be too. “Where Do You Come From” focuses on a person who doesn’t make sense to the singer; he listens to things the person says, but still can’t figure it out. It’s an ode to those people that you can just never get. “Something Real” closes out the EP as a neg to the people in your life who always promised great things, claimed they were destined for greatness, but never got anything done. Whether it’s about a relationship or friendship is up to you, but it’s angry riffs and repetition of “tell me something real” are enough to give you daydreams of screaming this song along with them in the pit.

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Of the EP, George Pauley says: "Where Do You Come From' is the song that started this whole project and kicked off our relationship with Mike Purcell (Lees Of Memory, Hurts To Laugh, Tom Pappas Collection). The first time we played the song live we butchered it. The whole thing just fell apart. Afterwards, some skinny white-haired J Mascis looking guy came up to us saying he wanted to record 'that song!' 'Are you sure you mean that song?' we asked. So, we went to County Q and recorded it the next weekend."

After recording with County Q, they continued to keep their nose to the grindstone, working hard to If the phrase “go in the direction of your dreams” has any weight to The By Gods, then, by god, I hope they do.

Their EP is out soon. You can order pre-order here, from their band camp, and then order some more of their music, and then reach out to them and tell them how great they are and invite them to play in your basement. It’s summer: what else are you doing?

Annalise Domenighini works for a company that people like to think killed DIY, but she’s not sure that’s true because people still yarn bomb the streets around here. Follow her on Twitter.