YOU - Yuh

The new project from Gavin and Brian Caffrey Perez-Canto is a return to basics for the brothers. When they first started playing music, Brian played guitar because Gavin wanted to play drums, and YOU is a return to the familial formula, with each displaying their love for various forms of punk, classic emo, and indie rock while Brian’s jagged guitars and Gavin’s voice compete for primacy.

By Gavin’s count the brothers have been in four bands together, and YOU is in part an effort to stay connected even as he prepares to move to Philly at the end of the month. The seven diverse tracks off Yuh seem designed to catch the listener off guard as the brothers demonstrate their disparate songwriting, as well as a collaborative ease which comes with time and familiarity.

From his emotional drumming in Places to Hide to his agitated vocal stylings in Fishmonger, Gavin has demonstrated a variety of talents, most notably an ability to distill pro-labor, anti-cop, and anti-capitalist rhetoric into razor-sharp punk while fronting Fishmonger. Both his drumming and vocals are more varied on Yuh, but even though the music is more wide-ranging, Gavin still intones with relentless focus and energy. His social activism and push for systemic change within Atlanta and the country as a whole is key to his songwriting, but he engages with these topics with a frankness that is more exhilarating than academic.

On Yuh, Gavin is able to focus his thoughts into snippets of emotion that take the form of blurted musings and flashes of contemplation. Though the EP is fairly short, he covers a wide variety of topics, from metaphysical problems like the nature of the mind, to social ills like gentrification, to more humdrum matters like bad landlords and being broke. Each theme is distilled into its most basic elements, whether that be fear, joy, anger, or despondence, and nowhere is that more evident than in the unshackled rager, “Cops.” This isn’t the first track that he’s has addressed the police state in America, but it’s the most primal and instinctual. He relishes in his id with repeated lines of “I hate every cop, more and more every day,” and it’s a satisfying whirlwind of energy that tapers into the weary, deconstructed math rock of “Changes.” From there he dives into the details on “Happy,” an undercover almond milk commercial that serves as the emotional plateau of the album and the jumping off point for his perspectives on deeper matters.

Throughout the album, Brian’s meticulous guitar work acts as a foil to Gavin’s reflexive vocals, and even the heaviest bits course with an agility inherent to methodical songwriting. His detailed riffs also match a deep concern with the final product. He does, after all, run Studio 168 where the album was recorded and founded the Athens’ tape label Star Rats Records, which is releasing the album.

Gavin teamed up with Deborah Hudson of Art School Jocks for vocals on “Mind” and “New,” but Hudson’s production of “New” is the record’s crowning achievement. The minimal synth lines combined with Gavin’s detached vocals deftly communicates the reality of fading lives and identities in gentrifying neighborhoods. It’s hard to know whether the shift in sound is a one-off for the brothers, whose true love remains punk music, yet it’s further evidence that even with so many projects under their belt, neither shows signs of stagnation.

YOU will perform tomorrow night, July 28, at 529 alongside Yukons, Superfit, Blammo, and Blessingxx. Doors open at 9 p.m. $5-7 suggested donation. 21+ to enter.

More Info
Bandcamp: musicbyyou.bandcamp.com