Recommended if you like: Gobble Gobble

Perhaps Gobble Gobble isn’t the most recognizable name in music at the moment, but among blogs that do nothing but track rising indie acts, the spazzy electro-pop act has gotten a good bit of play. The solo endeavor of Canadian expatriate Cecil Frena even got a shout-out on Pitchfork’s Forkcast last spring, and the project has continued to gain steam since then, for good reason. Gobble Gobble’s tunes are charming, rapturous little earworms that are hard to resist. Likewise, the full-band live show—Frena and a few friends—generates the kind of enthusiasm that would put most carnivals to shame. Before the group drops by Schubas for a show tonight, The A.V. Club decided to take a peek at some musical acts that Gobble Gobble owes a bit of gratitude.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Some say this group is Japan’s answer to Kraftwerk, yet Yellow Magic Orchestra fills its tunes with a playful, upbeat accessibility that is often missing on Kraftwerk’s more gargantuan songs. There’s a proto-chiptune ambience in much of the band’s music, giving it a hyped-up feel akin to that of Gobble Gobble.

Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon and Gobble Gobble’s Frena sound like long-lost musical brothers. Both love keeping things DIY, both create electro-pop that pushes accessibility and gain levels to their maximum capacities, and both can whip crowds into a dancing frenzy. Fingers crossed that these two acts will do a joint tour soon.

Butthole Surfers 
Forget about “Pepper” for a moment, and instead, remember the Butthole Surfers of the ’80s: the Surfers that confronted hardcore punks with live show so deranged that people are better off not recalling certain specifics. Gobble Gobble is hardly deranged in its live show, but considering the live band’s members cut their teeth in Canadian hardcore bands, their whimsical live show that sees three guys in tutus dancing around seems downright confrontational.

Fugazi
Speaking of confrontational, post-hardcore, and shirtless guys in feminine garments, D.C. legend Fugazi had that all down decades ago. When the group began playing around the nation’s capital in the late ’80s, it was often accompanied by shirtless, skirt-wearing fans who enthusiastically danced onstage with the band. The link between Fugazi and Gobble Gobble is a bit stronger than simply challenging the conformity of hardcore with clothing. Like the members of Fugazi, Frena played in a couple of hardcore bands, the influence of which can be heard in Gobble Gobble’s more riotous, engaging songs. Without that experience in a confined musical format, neither musical act would’ve ended up the way it did.

Heavy Vegetable
Long before Rob Crow co-created indie-pop act Pinback (not to mention countless other bands), he dabbled in punk weirdness with Heavy Vegetable. There’s a humorous, playful side to both Gobble Gobble and Heavy Vegetable, though it’s hardly gimmicky. Both groups have created pop that’s as bold and engaging as they are oddly engaging as groups.

Parts And Labor
The Brooklyn trio tends to fall in favor with the punk crowd a little more than Gobble Gobble does, but both acts like to mold jarring electronic noise into moving melodies and heart-pounding anthems.

Emperor X
Jacksonville, Florida singer-songwriter Chad Matheny makes charming little anti-folk songs under the name Emperor X that seem to reach beyond Matheny’s technological means and leave an impression. His work is reminiscent of Gobble Gobble’s first album, 2009’s Neon Graveyard: It’s a record that sounds as if it was recorded using equipment that was broken in the ’60s—but that’s just a part of the disarming charm.

The Eternals
The Chicago experimental act sounds like it’s changing with each new album, mixing dub, hip-hop, funk, post-punk, samba, and dozens of yet-to-be-described genres into a heady sound. Perhaps not as varied as The Eternals (few musicians can pull that off and still retain their voices), Frena also manages to imbue elements of post-hardcore, anti-folk, noise, and experimental electronics for a unique sound.

The Mae Shi
Few acts mix spazzy punk and electronic glee like L.A. ensemble The Mae Shi. The group members never fully abandoned that aggressive charge, though they managed to streamline and focus it, much like Gobble Gobble has done with each new song since Neon Graveyard.

Food For Animals
Maryland hip-hop act Food For Animals has some distinct marks that make the group stick out in its genre, from trippy voice dubbing to the use of abrasive and skittish electronic instrumentation. Food For Animals is just as jarring and distinct as Gobble Gobble can be, though perhaps Food For Animals is more of an acquired taste.

Extra Life
Avant-garde multi-instrumentalist Charlie Looker will probably get compared with Dirty Projectors (a band he briefly played in) more than he will get compared with Gobble Gobble. But, just as Frena’s otherworldly falsetto remains front and center for all Gobble Gobble tunes, Looker’s aggressive art rock is anchored by his siren-like wail. His voice can make Projectors’ David Longstreth sound rather plain.

Baths
Like Frena, Baths main-dude Will Wiesenfeld started out performing in a different genre than that of his current project, and his classical piano training has done his electronic project some good. Both Baths and Gobble Gobble are steeped in a bit of fuzz and feedback, which helps produce earnest, enlivened music with a beat that’s great for dancing. This connection is not lost upon the musicians and booking agents, as Baths and Gobble Gobble have performed together. Perhaps a recording collaboration is right around the corner.

Deastro
Detroit musician Randolph Chabot Jr., aka Deastro, cranks out loads of electronic nuggets with plenty of sharp hooks. His tunes, a shimmering bedroom pop that’s got an eerie streak to it, is no doubt right up Frena’s alley.