Gob

Tom – guitars, vocals
Theo– guitars, vocals
Craig – bass
Gabe –drums

There’s nothing like throwing a dung-shaped chocolate bar into a hotel pool filled with frolicking families to break up the monotony of life on the road. “It was total chaos,” laughs Gob guitarist/vocalist/chief mischief-maker Theo, who pulled the stool stunt during a recent tour stopover in Chicago. “We had just checked in when I noticed the pool was filled with parents and their kids,” he says. “So I bought a king-sized Oh Henry bar from the lobby vending machine and tossed it in when no one was looking. All of a sudden, some kid screamed, ‘there’s a log in the water!’ and all hell broke loose. It was pretty damn funny.”

That Theo and his Gob mates (guitarist/vocalist Tom, bassist Craig, and drummer Gabe) enjoy playing practical jokes almost as much as pounding out pop-happy punk should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen the group live. “People come to our shows knowing they’re in for a good time,” says Gob co-founder Tom. “We have a blast on stage and I think audiences appreciate seeing a band that’s not embarrassed to get up there and have fun. That’s the way it should be.”

It’s astounding to think that until recently, most of us hadn’t heard of the other platinum-selling Canadian pop-punk quartet, even though they’ve been around since ’96. Since then, they’ve released four albums (Too Late…No Friends, Ass Seen On TV, How Far Shallow Takes You and last year’s gold-selling The World According To Gob), scored a handful of radio hits, garnered video airplay on Canada’s MuchMusic network and snagged three years on the Warped Tour. Up north, where everything comes second to hockey, Gob are also hailed as heroes for appearing as characters in Electronic Arts’ new NHL 2003 video game. “We had a couple of songs on the 2002 version,” says Theo. “We’ll have another two songs on the 2003 version, and we can be drafted to play for your team. A couple of us are pretty big hockey fans, so this is a pretty big deal for us.”

The Vancouver-based band has been following an indie route since day one, and has spent the past few years strategizing for a U.S. breakthrough. Last year, fellow Canucks Sum 41 helped Gob build a Stateside buzz by taking them on four separate road trips across the country. “We played a few shows together a couple of years ago,” says Theo. “Now they’ve become this super-huge multi-platinum band. It’s really cool that they didn’t forget about us. We’re really grateful for their support.” The success of the Sum 41 tours led to mass applause and major airplay for “I Hear You Calling,” a caffeinated pop hit that whipped American kids into a lather.

This past spring, Gob took a major label step forward when they signed with Arista Records. The ink on the contract had barely dried when they entered a Los Angeles studio with producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, blink-182) to record their Arista debut, Foot in Mouth Disease, due in early 2003. “We’ve been approached by major labels before, but it never felt right,” says Theo. “Within five days of hearing our demo, Arista flew us to New York to play for (label president and CEO) L.A. Reid.”

About doing the industry showcase, Tom says, “We were told to expect a few people to show up with notebooks, who’d jot down notes and pass them back and forth without saying a word while we’d play. But it wasn’t like that at all. Arista had 50 or 60 people there and they were definitely into it.” Adds Theo, “Afterward, L.A. told us we were really tight and one of the best bands he’d ever seen live. They showed us right away that they believed in us and we were really excited about that.”

Preceding the band’s highly anticipated full-length album is the F.U. EP, a nine-track primer on all things Gob.

“The EP helps introduce us to the U.S.,” says Tom. “It features some of the old favorites that we play live, along with three new songs that were recorded exclusively for this record. There’s also one new track that’ll appear on the full album later on.”

The flamethrowing F.U. EP is raw-nerved and punked-out, drawing as much from Dag Nasty and AC/DC as from Minor Threat and the Pixies. Hyper chug-nuggets like “What To Do,” “For The Moment,” “No Regrets” and “Beauville” are classic Gob—turbine-powered and pop-savvy and filled with one sumptuous hook after another. Infectious new songs like “Sick With You” and “LA Song” are warm and thicker, with smart, taut arrangements that echo in your head long after they’re over. The disc leads off with “Ming Tran,” a fun and exhilarating track whose quirky chorus—about having martial arts expert Ming Tran kung fu one of Tom’s foes—is catchy enough to make even the most tone-deaf sing along.

“I wrote the song about a girl named Ming Tran who kicks guys in the head,” laughs Tom. “She was featured in an ad I saw in Giant Robot magazine and I have a video where she wails on some poor guy for like 10 minutes. I thought it was pretty amusing. The song is about someone who did me wrong, so I send my friend Ming Tran to kick them in the face. I hope she likes the song. I don’t want her kicking me in the face.”

Gob’s roots can be traced back to the mid ‘90s, after rival high school students Tom and Theo found out they were seeing the same girl. “Technically, Tom didn’t date her,” laughs Theo. “I scored more than he did. All he got was one kiss.” “Yeah,” replies Tom, “but that’s all I wanted from her.” After comparing licks and riffs, the two set out to turn the scene on its ear.

Of the band’s early days, Tom says, “I remember reading an article about a local band taking off and touring North America on their own and I thought that was incredible. I couldn’t imagine just getting in a van and going to play anywhere we wanted. I thought you needed to have lots of money and be on a big label to do those things. So that inspired us to book tours and make CDs and do everything ourselves. We would record seven inches and make T-shirts and sell them at shows and use that money for gas to get us to the next place. It was total DIY stuff. Then we got management (Nettwerk—who also guide the careers of Avril Lavigne and Sum 41) and now we have a major label. But you can’t wait around and hope that everything will fall into place. You have to get out there and make it happen. We did and now we’re doing what we want. It’s pretty cool.”