GUPPY - Something is Happening...

LA-based artist GUPPY releases their album Something Is Happening… via Lauren Records. In the past 7 years, GUPPY has evolved from their In the Garage EP origins, releasing 2 albums: In Heat, and their most recent album, Big Man Says Slappydoo. Joined in the last 2 years by their newest member, Kabir Kumar (Sun Kin), on lead guitar and backing vocals, GUPPY has expanded their musicality, moving beyond their garage punk origins and expanding into power pop, disco, country, and surf rock territories. With this latest evolution of GUPPY comes their most ambitious record yet, Something is Happening…

Produced by Sarah Tudzin (illuminati hotties, boygenius) , the album was recorded at Elliott Smith’s old studio, New Monkey in Van Nuys. The album reflects a collaborative effort with equal contributions from each member, resulting in a sonic hero’s journey venturing from ambient wistfulness, to post punk irreverence, to sincere indie crooning, to playful garage rock, and returning back again to the beginning, but this time you’re changed.

The themes of Something is Happening… speak to a feeling of hopelessness, born from the realization that the system is not here to protect us, and an accompanying emergence of hope as we invest in and lean on our communities. GUPPY rejects nihilism, relishes in absurdism, and ultimately agrees with poet Khalil Gibran that, “the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” The album is made up of observations about absurd specifics that either want to kill us or celebrate us, and sometimes GUPPY can’t differentiate between the two:

“Why does it smell like scrambled eggs when I’m driving on the freeway? What’s the difference between love and hate when I feel it in my body?”

LA-based band GUPPY is the brainchild of J Lebow, Marc Babcock, and Ian Cohen. Birthed in a Glendale, CA garage circa 2017, the founding members met previously as undergraduate students at Emerson College in Boston, MA.

Guitarist/vocalist Lebow pairs laugh-out-loud absurdity with tender sentimentality, building upon bouncy, infectious rhythms by drummer Cohen and bassist Babcock, supported by the group’s lush, sunny vocal harmonies. Joined by their newest member Kabir Kumar (Sun Kin) on lead guitar and backing vocals, the band has expanded their musicality, moving beyond their garage punk origins into the realms of power pop, disco, country, and surf rock.

GUPPY has carved their space in the LA indie rock scene, in addition to playing countrywide alongside bands such as Cheekface, Mamalarky, Chris Farren, and Skating Polly. Describing their genre as “Secular Guitar Music”, GUPPY is known for their absurdist lyrics and energetic and joyous live shows.