The project of Olympia duo Mary Water (Little Red Car Wreck) and Pat Maley (Lois, Courtney Love), Guidon Bear have established themselves with a series of records in recent years. First Downwardly Mobile: Steel Accelerator appeared back in 2019, an introduction to a brand of indie pop we described as “the kind of stuff that put Olympia on the map way back when,” Water, Maley and co. exploring the frustration and woes of contemporary existence (plus the resilience required to survive them) with a tone at once playful and sincere. “[There’s a] unique lyricism on display,” as we wrote in our review, “everyday observations married with the slightly absurd to capture a world that’s far more familiar than some grey hyperrealist description.”
Follow-ups Unravel and Internal Systems pushed these ideas further, refusing to romanticise the struggle of living in an exploitative society while searching for a worthwhile existence all the same. “[The album] challenges the heroism too often misapplied to such experiences, refusing to subscribe to the idea there’s anything noble about suffering,” we wrote of the former. “’I’m not a part of your cult of positivity,’ as Water continues on ‘Legoset Life’. ‘I’m not strong, so please stop saying it’.” Single ‘Spiders’ represented the cornerstone of the release, a compassionate song which took the humble yet enduring purpose of the titular arachnid and repurposed it as a metaphor for those struggling for meaning within the present. “Perhaps,” as we continued in our piece, “in a world that can feel dark and vast and dislocated, all any creature can do is continue to build the small things they are able to, whether it brings them comfort or joy or simple distraction, just to prove they are still alive.”
Early in 2027 Guidon Bear will return with Home Sick, a brand new full-length via Antiquated Future Records, and the album feels like a culmination, not only of the project but the thirty years of collaboration Water and Maley have shared. Consisting of fifteen genre-bending tracks packed to the brim with their trademark lyricism, Home Sick is a maximalist affair, leaning into the idiosyncrasies that have made their work special with a triumphant delight, a sense of celebration that bleeds into the themes and tone of the songs themselves. Because, while there is still a direct engagement with the trials of the contemporary moment, be it climate change, fascist cruelty or whatever else, it is often directed towards those standing in opposition rather than the evils themselves. Trans trailblazers Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson and their Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries organization feature, as does Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez, the Washington State organizer who has drawn the ire of ICE for his work with farmworkers, not to mention a myriad of natural and non-human things which offer sites of liberation and healing for those attentive enough to seek them out. Check out the first two tracks from the album now:
Home Sick will be released on the 12th January via Antiquated Future and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.