The night before I gave Larry Gus’ I Need New Eyes LP a maiden listen, I was laughing in bed—almost to tears—while reading an Onion story to my girlfriend. It was titled, “Butterfly Fuck-Swing Filled With Junk Mail”. Oddly enough, its sentiment of a couple who simply cannot partake in the wild explorations of their sexuality they enjoyed before having a child is relative to the Larry Gus record. I Need New Eyes is Larry Gus’ fuck-swing filled with junk mail. The Proustian title, inspired by the quote “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”, stems from Gus’ entry into fatherhood and a return from Tokyo in which he was faced with the reality that his planted roots in Greece meant he could never live abroad.
Sonically I Need New Eyes is familiar territory for Larry Gus, polyrhythmic exotica that inspires jubilant movement. As a new father, he said he is not afforded the time nor energy to explore the infinite possibilities of his psyche and creative spirit. He can’t waste time, just like that imaginary couple in Elmhurst, IL with the butterfly fuck-swing can’t tests the limits of ecstasy like they used to. And so, Larry Gus finds himself repurposing what he knows, and has explore previously by viewing it anew. Like a ball gag can be hung from the garage ceiling to indicate when the mini-van is completely in, I Need New Eyes feels like where we left Gus previously, only he’s discovered more vibrant colors that hone his once-erratic cornucopia into a submissive study of his oeuvre. In his words it’s “a life of failures condensed in a dream”, but it’s hard to follow that logic when I Need New Eyes is alive and well, super-psychedelic, and sensitive to the self. Larry Gus’ might feel inadequate in his skin, but as noted in the pop mastery of “A Set Of Replies”, he’s not going down without a fight.
Larry Gus’ I Need New Eyes LP is out October 2 on DFA Records.
