"Gender-Euphoria-Core"

Or Why You Should Listen to Don't Blow It by Good Game

I can only describe the experience of listening to Good Game as a delicate dance that strikes all the right spots in your ears and shocks all the right neurons in your brain. Music of pure bliss - the kind of thing that makes everything in the world melt away and every ray of light hit more beautifully.

Don’t Blow It is the 2017 EP from Pennsylvania math-rock band Good Game. One of the things that sonically distinguishes them from other math-rock bands is that they have two lead singers, one who generally takes the upper register (Brie Emsee) and the other who usually takes the lower (Brock Benzel). A large part of what makes this work is actually the large overlap between the two’s vocal ranges allowing them to trade and support one another in a unique way. The two have brilliant chemistry, bouncing off of each others’ lines and weaving in and out of one another like a tapestry of two threads, constantly passing off who’s on lead and who’s on backup.

The EP opens up with the comedically titled Cheating The Nasa Space Physical. A charging track about learning to love oneself and one’s identity, to try not to see oneself through the critical and judging eyes of the world around you. In their words:

I don’t need your diagnosis, I don’t need your extraversion, to know I’m perfect

With their quirky insistence on using scientific jargon as metaphors for identity, love, and heartbreak, they write a strange sort of poetry that shouldn’t work… but thanks to their earnest tone and ear for melody it does. The result is a series of unstoppable driving guitar riffs and drumbeats that make you feel like you’re hitting that runners high you get from long cardio sessions, while also being told stories of love and heart break and other generally accepted emo-music emotions.

On the second song of the EP, Latitudes, Good Game takes us through some sparkling start and stop riffs and lines that keep us on the edge of our seat before guiding us to one of the catchiest hooks you’re going to find this side of the mainstream. Here, they really put on full display their talent as musicians and composers with a knack for interesting rhythm and intertwining melodic lines.

The third track of the EP Stitchface is where their talent as odd songwriters shines and the chemistry between Emsee and Benzel is undeniable. Lyrics of a breakup told through the language of math and video games accompanied by harmonies that will tug at your ears and tear your heart.

This is not a band for everyone, this is not music for everyone, and frankly they don’t really care. Good Game describes their music in their Instagram bio as “Gender-euphoria-core” - I will spend the rest of my life writing and never be as succinct and accurate as those three words. The music they make is constantly fluid and always bubbling with energy. There’s always some line or pattern or note that will catch your ear as the melody is thrown between members amidst music that will pump your heart with ecstasy. This is Carly Rae Jepsen for the mid-west emo kids, this is bubble gum pop for the basement show parties, this is speeding down a country road music for the kids who were too nerdy, too queer, too anxious to thrive in the suburbs. This might not be music for you, but for me it is pure crack-cocaine and I cannot get enough. Here’s hoping we finally get their debut album this year. If you’ve never heard them before, then take this as your sign to give them a try.