Our Interview With Rev Gusto: "...if the Modern Lovers had a baby with The Kinks, then that baby grew up listening to The Violent Femmes and Frank Ocean."

We happened to click on Rev Gusto's song "Click-Click" a few weeks back and fell in love with its poppy goodness, so we sought out the fellows behind the sound for a short interview in advance of their Friday night barnburner at Barnyard Beer (alongside Mr. and the Mrs., The Bad Ideas, and Four Arm Shiver; show starts at 10:00).  This is a ROCK show, kids, so all you scenesters who associate the Barnyard with nothing but hippie noodling should venture out there on Friday!

Check out Rev Gusto's tunes on Soundcloud, "like" them on Facebook here , and follow them on Twitter @revgusto .  In this interview, we discuss girls in short skirts, Rubik's cubes, and, yes, even the music of Rev Gusto!


Chip:  Tell us about the name Rev Gusto.  Is the Rev short for “Reverend?”  Are any of you fellows ordained ministers?  Give us the origin story of the band name.

Rev Gusto:  Our name used to be 'Legal in Canada' until an all-ages venue (the only place that would give us a gig at the time) disapproved of the name.  So we changed the name to Reverent Gusto, then shortened it to Rev Gusto! We feel we sing with gusto so it works out!

Richard:  The song “Click-Click” is just catchy as hell!  It reminds me a bit of some of the Fourth of July stuff, to use a local reference:  pretty and poppy but not polished to the point where the emotion is bleached out.  How would you describe the “Rev Gusto sound” for us? And can you incorporate one of those “we sound like ________ meets _________” references (but filling in those blanks with esoteric bands).

Rev Gusto:  We like to think of it as if the Modern Lovers had a baby with The Kinks, then that baby grew up listening to The Violent Femmes and Frank Ocean. Each member has their own influences (Blues, Hip-Hop, punk rock, soul) so its just a fantastic mix of genres that gives off an energetic and dancy indie-pop/rock vibe.

Chip: Also, tell us what effects you’d like a song such as “Click-Click” to have on your listeners.  For instance, all that talk about “girls in short skirts” has the effect of giving me a boner!

Rev Gusto: We play "feel good" music, so if it gets the audience hot, bothered, and having a good time, our goal is achieved. 

Richard:   Leave us with a blurb that convinces our lazy readers that they absolutely MUST leave Mass. Street or Frank's for an evening and join you at Barnyard Beer for your show on the 14^th. 

Rev Gusto: It's literally RIGHT behind The Merc! So if you, by chance, need food and want to listen to some randy music you know where we will be.  

Chip:  Oh, one more thing.  You gents seem to have an affinity for Rubik’s Cubes based on the album cover and other promotional material.  Is there anyone in the band that can give me some tips on solving that sumbitch??  I’ve been trying for upwards of 20 years now!

 
Rev Gusto: Bring a cube to the show and our guitarist, Peter, will show you.

And here is our first video: 

Album cover:  

 


Cool show flyer!