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11/08/2024

A Renewed Gondos Gets Down to Business: On Being The Smartest Band in Eugene, Garage-Rock Influences from Mexico, A Brand New Lineup, and Playing with “The Fear” While Staying Hungry

By TOBIAS WISNER //  Sitting down with up-and-coming Garage-Punk rockers - Gondos - the band meets to discuss new singles and shows on the horizon, how stoked they are about their latest personnel addition, a brand new song, and how they’re adapting to the bigger pond of the Portland scene from Eugene-DIY-house-show roots.

As I walk along SE 12th Avenue in Buckman, on my way to famed cash-only bar A Roadside Attraction, I feel sweat greasing up my underarms and a damp imprint forming where my gear-bag rests on my back - a sure sign that one is schlepping additional inventory slots in the heat of a global-warming-assisted Portland in August.

I swore to myself that I’d never forgive the Boomer generation for wrecking the planet so hard that Portland, nestled in what’s supposed to be American rainforest, now hits 100 degrees on the regular this time of year, but I’m greeted by a relative oasis as I huff and puff my way through Roadside’s gate to a seat at their shaded front patio. I fumble with my wallet at the bar, looking for once-forgotten one dollar bills to finance an ice-cold Diet Coke while I get set up for today’s interview. In speaking with the band’s frontman whom I’m meeting here, along with the rest of their members and their new bass player - I’m told that this bar is where all official “Gondos business” is conducted.

Despite my profuse sweating and lamentations about the unnatural heat, I was genuinely excited to finally sit down with the outfit that would begin to file in one by one and sit down at my centrally located table. Between puffs of cigarettes, greetings, and pleasantries, I reminded myself that Gondos were a band I had long sought to cover and meet in an official capacity. The mere fact that they seemed just as excited to talk to me was all the reassurance I needed that this would be a good conversation, and as I hit record on my trusty Voice Memos app to get the interview started, we indeed got down to business.

The Smartest Band in Eugene

If you have a propensity for distorted guitars, raspy scream-sung vocals, and powerful Garage-Rock rhythm sections, Gondos is a band you should be hip to if you hunger for good local music with an edge. Formerly “Los Gondos” until a couple of years ago, the renewed, just Gondos, is composed of Aidan Case (frontman, guitar, vocals), Ben Windheim (guitar), Grant Anderson (drums) and Elizabeth “Liz” Zarnick (bass). If you’ve read any of my past pieces, two out of those four names might sound familiar - Aidan was once a member of storied Oregon band Novacane, and Ben is also the lead guitarist in The Macks, another musical act to be reckoned with in this city.

Don’t let the double-dipping on personnel fool you though, Gondos is Aidan’s first and primary project, which dates back to dorm rooms and the DIY Rock scene at the University of Oregon in Eugene circa 2018. 

He explains: “Gondos started at the UO Carson Hall dorms I guess, with our original bass player who lived down the hall from me. We would get together and make just really, really bad little songs. They were almost rooted in comedy at first - like making diss tracks about people we didn’t like. I’ve been doing that my whole life to be honest, just blowing off steam writing diss tracks with an acoustic guitar - it has more to do with my origins in music than I suppose I’d like to admit. Our first name was Ditch Witch,” finishing with a laugh.

The story goes on and Aidan continues: “We didn’t start playing for real until like, late 2018 and 2019 where we moved into this shithole house where we met Grant - who said he could play drums, and he could indeed play drums - plus our original lead guitar player who’s a doctor now.” Cue laughs from the group. 

“We practiced in this just wet, disgusting basement full of maggots and broken glass, and it didn’t have a door either so soundproofing was a whole thing. Lotsa friends of friends and random encounters were involved in early iterations of the band, and as we played our first house shows we kinda garnered a reputation for just being this drunk-as-shit party band when in reality we were just really loud and really bad, but we didn’t tell anyone that till afterward though. It seemed like people were having fun regardless,” he says with a chuckle. “Everything changed when Grant switched his kit to left-handed though, during the good ol’ pandemic.”

Grant flashed Aidan a look and let out a genuine guffaw. “Yeah, my whole drumming career I was playing on a regular set-up despite being naturally left-handed. When the pandemic hit and we were out of college continuing to practice, I realized I had nothing but time and made the switch and started playing on the reverse side. Suddenly I was able to lead fills with my dominant hand and not trip over myself every time, and my cymbals stopped being all grouped together on one side of the kit in some mutated tower formation that looked weird and never felt right.”

Aidan’s eyes lit up: “Dude, I forgot about the cymbal tower,” he exclaimed with a laugh. “But in all seriousness, the pandemic kind of gave us a chance to lock in and focus on not only having fun with our friends, but being a good band in the first place, like putting more thought and effort and artistry behind everything we did. We just had so much time and we were practicing so much, we basically recommitted to making something out of the whole project.”

Ben interjected with a snicker: “Yeah, it wasn’t till later that I had officially started playing with Gondos either. I kinda knew you guys mostly from partying at my house and for being ‘the smartest band in Eugene.’”

I looked up from my notebook. “The smartest band in Eugene? Where’d that come from?”

“It’s because we were decidedly NOT that,” Aidan explained with a laugh. “We were maybe the drunkest, but definitely not the smartest. It was more of an inside joke from our current, tiny fanbase and other friends. We don’t have a cool nickname like that up here though which is disappointing. Since moving here we've been going for ‘The Loudest Band in Portland,’ at least in my mind, but there’s lots of competition.” 

“So bummed I wasn’t there for all this,” chimed Elizabeth with a laugh of her own. 

Aidan retorted: “Yeah, that’s probably for the best… But for real, Elizabeth joined the band up here after we had gotten more established and Ben started playing more shows with us. To me, what you see gathered around you today is the best, coolest iteration of Gondos to date, and we’re really excited to run with what we have.”

The Loudest Band in Portland

Aidan’s tale of the history of Gondos follows a through-line I’ve noticed when profiling bands I think are worth your time - they’re originally in this to celebrate the act of making music (however that may manifest itself) and most importantly, have fun with friends and contemporaries in the scene.

Also, while it may sound like Aidan is downplaying the amount of intention put into their work, the truth is that since I’ve clocked them here in the city, Gondos have been a force to be reckoned with in Portland’s Rock scene since they first hopped out of their touring van from their Eugene home.

I’ve caught these guys at seemingly every venue of interest in Portland - Lollipop Shoppe in inner SE, Rontoms on E Burnside, The Fixin’ To in St. Johns up in North - and my take is that this band is putting in the necessary work to play toe-to-toe with some of the best acts we have to offer as a collective. With a show coming up at The Six Below Midnight on SE Belmont on Saturday, November 9th celebrating their new single, “Combat Amphetamines,” this is a band you don’t want to miss if you feel the energy of Rock in your bones, but I’ll get to the rest of that in a minute.

For context, their vibe is a flavor of Garage Rock that’s almost frenetic. It’s got energy for days, chugging guitar riffs and basslines, fast drumming chops from the lefty behind the kit, and an aspect of being raw and unfiltered without anything feeling unfinished or like an afterthought.

When I’ve seen this group play before, I’m almost reminded of the scene in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, when the Michael Cera-fronted band Sex Bob-omb goes up against the imposing Katayanagi Twins. The culmination of a wall of sound that manifests itself as a giant, cartoonish white tiger beating the shit out of two equally giant snakes - that’s the energy, fun, and spectacle Gondos brings with them to every set I’ve seen them play.

That energy is rooted in a variety of influences from a variety of music-loving childhoods in the band, from Grants background in “world drumming” to Ben’s history behind a mixing board, but what’s seemingly most important to Aiden creatively is the work of Hunter S. Thompson and the legacy left by the Mexican Garage Rock scene.

He explains: “A lot of our early work was just me being really stoked on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Reading that was hugely inspiring to me at the time. It was a certain, like, ‘Fuck you, I’m gonna do what I want’ attitude I wanted to emulate with my music. Plus, I was deep into a lot of Garage bands out of Mexico like Los Yetis, Los Psychos, Los Dug Dug’s - it’s where the ‘Los’ in our initial name originally comes from, just the sheer amount of respect I have for those bands as I was coming up as a musician.”

Aidan continues: “We’re just ‘Gondos’ now, obviously, and fun fact - ‘Gondos’ doesn’t actually mean anything. Our original guitar player just put a ‘G’ in front of the Spanish word ‘Ondos’ which means ‘waves,’ and at the time Google Translate told us that meant “gonads,” so I was just like ‘Yeah, that’ll work for our first show and then we’ll change it.’ But we just never did and it stuck. It’s only a couple letters off from the word ‘Gonzo’ though I suppose - a little more Hunter working his way in I guess.”

Cosmically aligned meaning aside, Gondos are doing unique things in the Portland Rock scene right now. If they were worth paying attention to before, their new lineup, songs on the horizon and the energy that comes with them is reason enough to give them a follow wherever you get your music.

Gondos 2.0

Being somewhat familiar with the band’s history at this point, my attention turned toward where Gondos is looking to go with so many new developments slated. First and foremost, they want you to know that they’ve never been better than they are now, and they have their hard work so far plus a new addition on bass to thank for that.

“Elizabeth is a fucking killer. I just want that to go on record,” said Aidan, leaning into my phone’s microphone at first and looking back up at me with a chuckle. 

Elizabeth laughed and seemed to blush in response: “I just feel happy and lucky to be in this project. It’s been really fun for me and the trust they have in me already is reassuring. Sometimes just with the history of the band, I wish I had met with some of the original members to continue on the Gondos lore in the best way I can.”

“That’s just the thing,” said Aidan. “At this point in the Gondos lore, it's more about what YOU would do now.” He looked at Elizabeth directly and then back at me. “Elizabeth showed up on day one of practice knowing all of our songs already. We didn’t, like, share music or tabs beforehand. She just had played along to all our stuff before we actually met to practice so she came in knowing pretty much everything. She even knew songs we hadn’t done in a long time.”

He continues: “It’s just been very easy to welcome her into the fold and she makes Gondos feel like a new band again. I can’t overstate how exciting that is for us, just because things do get repetitive after a while and we were grinding for so long. But things feel fresh and awesome right now and we’re all really excited.”

Grant chimed in: “Just as a rhythm section too, it’s been really great having Elizabeth on board. I was truthfully really nervous about finding a bass player that was right for us, and since she joined things have been really easy, like Aidan said.”

“Easy to the point that we’re having a hard time narrowing down what we’re most excited about in terms of what we release and the album we’re working on. I think I have it down to about 30 tracks to sift through in my head,” said Aidan with another laugh.

The energy at this point in the conversation, much like with Gondos’s music, is palpable even from an outsider’s perspective. And given the band’s excitement about what they’re working on, to me, you should be just as excited about what Gondos is doing right now too.

New, Explosive Material

One of those things to get excited for is the band's latest single, “Combat Amphetamines,” that I mentioned earlier. It’s already out wherever you get your music, and I can confidently say it’s been a part of my regular rotation ever since Aidan sent me the link to it. 

To me, it sees Gondos in a new form - loud, distorted, and energetic for sure, but also possesses a degree of refinement and musicality that the band is equally capable of. Aidan’s vocals on top of a killer pentatonically descending bassline howl in an almost Gallagher/Oasis-esque style with a little more bite, and the band itself sounds tight and confident alongside them. Ben is often the brains behind the production of Gondos, and his mixing is clearly also at a high level. Each instrument occupies a neat place in the musical pocket - and the result is a song that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

More so doubling down on what Gondos already does well instead of reinventing the wheel, if this song is any indication of how hard the pit will be rocking at The Six Below Midnight come this Saturday the 9th - color me excited too. 

“The Six is by far our favorite place to play. It feels right to be doing this show there at this time at this stage of the band’s development. We’ve done a lot of work to make a name for ourselves here, and I hope that passion and hunger is apparent for our entire set,” said Aidan.

Playing With ‘The Fear,’ and Keeping an Appetite

When asked about goals for this year and in the future, Aidan told me: “Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we occupy the space we do now, but we try to remind ourselves that we’re the product of ‘having fun’ meets consistent effort over time. That’s why we’re really going pedal to the metal for 2024. Music videos, more songs, a tour, probably Treefort Festival, the open road, baby.”

Elizabeth chimed in: “At least for me, it’s a full body catharsis moment. Like, I’m stoked to get to be a part of something so charged and primed especially at this stage of Gondos. Not only is the band in good form, but there’s also room to experiment.”

Aidan nodded thoughtfully and responded: “Gondos definitely plays with ‘the fear.’”

I asked him to elaborate on that, curious about his take on the dichotomy of refinement and trying new things simultaneously.

He explained: “‘The Fear’ is the willingness to put yourself out there, to do potentially embarrassing things in the name of growth and not taking yourself too seriously at the same time. It’s a kind of ‘I am cringe but I am free’ moment for lack of a better way to phrase it. We definitely embrace that part of creativity. Fear is good for us, ultimately. It keeps us on our toes, and getting bigger in Portland has a lot to do with it.”

I can’t agree more with Aidan here. Especially in Portland, the courage to try new things or fall flat on your face is easier to summon when we exist in such a vibrant, community-driven, and also supportive scene (that is, if you have the chops to back it up, which Gondos do in spades). 

To me, the band has found a winning formula - work hard, have fun, try new stuff, and honor the space we live in and the history we have with each other. Keeping those things in mind has been essential to my creative journey, and for Gondos it seems like it’s paying off not only in terms of musical caliber, but also in terms of how much fun they’re having doing the damn thing.

“Staying hungry is definitely also a part of our ethos, almost more so now that we’re at the place we’re at,” added Aidan as I got toward the end of my line of questioning. “We’re proud of where we are, but we also want to go big and have fun doing it. That’s why Gondos does what Gondos does, and I hope that comes across when we play live, which we fucking love doing.”

The Bottom Line

To me, Gondos emulates an ethos, sound, and feeling that every band should quest for. I’m reminded of a snippet from music-world-legend Rick Rubin’s latest book, The Creative Act, when talking about their approach, alongside so many other Portland-based bands doing it today - “The audience comes last.”

What do I mean by that? It’s simple, Gondos is doing what Gondos wants to do first, and letting their natural authenticity, chops, and love of the game shine through as they come into their own in this city. To sum it up, they’re trusting themselves, positioning themselves in a way that feels right to them, and continuing to develop not because they want to get rich, or get a lot of Instagram followers, or other forms of external validation - they just love making music. That authenticity and commitment to the bit is immediately apparent when talking to them, and has ultimately put them in a place where success could be theirs for the taking.

“I don’t wanna ask for much out of this project,” said Aidan in response to my last question. “I just want to pay my rent with Gondos at some point. That’s it. I think that’s something we’re all going for as a band, and I think we’re getting closer and closer to that goal.”

If you ask me, Gondos is deserving of at least one collective rent payment, and certainly deserving of your attention if you care about good music and good people making it.

The band has come a long way since Carson Hall at the University of Oregon, and the sky is still the limit for them as they’ve never seemed more confident. After getting the chance to talk to them on that sweltering August day, I’m also confident in their vision, their approach, and most importantly their work product. Catch this band if you can, give them a follow on Instagram, and support other local artists you might care about too. 

If Gondos is any example, any microcosm of what makes the Portland music scene great, you’ll be as grateful that they moved up here from Eugene as I am.

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