geoff gordon are an indie rock collective based in Albany, NY. Built around the shared songwriting of Shannon Straney and Dan LaFave, who each take lead vocals on their own songs, the band is comprised of members from various other band in and around the New York scene, including Jouska, Aficionado, Coupons, Hospital Corners and Greens. The result is a sound untethered from any one genre or style, each member bringing their own ideas and allowing geoff gordon a stylistic freedom that makes for versatile, ever-surprising songs.
Next month sees the release of a brand new geoff gordon album, Sex and the City, on Five Kill Records, and the eclecticism is on full show. Their first new music since 2018 single ‘faith‘, the record is described as one of “stories, conversational asides, and emotional reckonings,” promising everything from “country-inflected indie rock to fuzzy guitar freakouts and chunky power-pop.” Indeed, the diversity of influences can often be found within single tracks, channelling early Wilco or Aimee Mann one minute, then Ratboys or Porches the next.
geoff gordon are releasing songs to build anticipation for the album, starting with the bright and sunny power pop ‘Neighbors’ which was unveiled earlier this month. Today, we have the honour of introducing another song, the wonderfully-titled ‘There’s a Lot of Horses in Oklahoma,’ a track the band says is a “little sad, [a] little yeehaw, [a] little ‘that’s life kid.’”
In a noticeable change from ‘Neighbors,’ Shannon Straney takes the lead, providing not just different vocals but a complete change in tempo. Gone is the hectic pace of of the previous single, replaced with an syrupy flow, indie pop that borrows the sad sway of the best country songs. Opening with the mournful wail of distant sirens, the track finds its easy rhythm in Straney’s crooned, slightly smoky vocals.
There is the occasionally escalation into a squall of guitars, but by the end the song finds its comfy country melancholy once more, a mood that’s at the forefront of the lyrics too. “So don’t make me leave just yet,” Straney sings, as though there’s a gap between the being hurt and feeling it. “My coat is still wet from walking over in the rain.” ‘There’s a Lot of Horses in Oklahoma’ is carved out of this space, the eye of the storm where your clothes are soaked through and are sure to get wetter still, but for this moment at least the rain has abated.
