Review
Guff
Engine Trouble

Go Kart (2003) Sean

Guff – Engine Trouble cover artwork
Guff – Engine Trouble — Go Kart, 2003

Sometimes I really wonder about people. I turn on the television and I see rape, murder, and complete apathy towards the billions of human beings living on 40 cents a day. It's time for a change, it's time for a revolution to make everyone on Earth stop in their tracks and think about things in a brand new way, so that maybe there is hope for this world yet.

Guff bring that revolution. Forging elements of pop and punk into an exciting new genre called "pop-punk". Their palm-muted guitars, overuse of pick slides, and melancholy lyrics filled with references to failed relationships and other trials and tribulations of being a misled youth are going to forever change the shape and sound of today's music. The boys in Guff spit in the face of interesting song structure, intelligence, and good songwriting, and instead cherish a new approach to music. This approach consists of lacking a strong pop sense, completely shattering the preconceptions that a good pop song and a smart pop sense go hand in hand. "Who needs a memorable catchy tune when you can write boring ones that sound a lot like 143,774 other bands?", asks the members of Guff. Song titles like "Scars are Tough Too" and "Yesterday Seems" you know you're in for an album packed with emotion, innovation, and truly amazing songwriting. "With a terrible, or as they like to say, "unconventional", vocalist and repetitive chord progressions, Guff are sure to leave their mark on every band to follow from this day on.

Oh I feel the tides a-changin', I feel the winds a-rearrangin'. I think this "pop-punk" thing is going to be huge.

3.0 / 10Sean • February 28, 2004

Guff – Engine Trouble cover artwork
Guff – Engine Trouble — Go Kart, 2003

Recently-posted album reviews

The Arrivals

Payload
Recess (2026)

It's been a short lifetime since the last Arrivals record, Volatile Molotov, but in many ways the new Payload picks up exactly where the last one left off. It straddles the mid-tempo punk spectrum while drawing influence from seemingly all realms of the rock 'n' roll cannon. I'd state that mod, power-pop, Brit Invasion, and even R&B are some of … Read more

UDDER

Self Titled
Depose Records (2025)

Some records feel like they were carefully constructed. Others feel like they were barely contained. Udder’s three-song 7” on Depose Records lands firmly in the second category with a short, strange burst of psych-leaning noise rock that feels less like a statement and more like something unearthed. That’s not far from the truth either. Originally formed in the early ’90s … Read more

Various Artists

Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Independent (2026)

Gary Young wasn’t just a drummer; he was a beautiful, unpredictable glitch poking a hole in the sky where other lovable misfits could enter and leave this universe they’d grace with their presence. While Hendrix kissed the sky, Young merely bit a hole right through it. While Pavement was busy inventing the 1990s slacker blueprint for the masses, Gary was … Read more