During its 14 years as a band, Goner released four remarkable LPs. The last, 2013’s Faking the Wisdom, cut a memorable line between the poignant narratives of late-period Joe Strummer and Big Star’s insistent power pop, peppered by bits of R.E.M. and Springsteen. Trapped in dreary towns and surrounded by losers, the tragic characters of keyboardist Scott Phillips seemed so well developed that they threatened to step out of the music to share sad stories over cheap beer.
Though the five-song EP Tethers Down isn’t a Goner record, it’s the same songwriter and the same musicians, stamped now with the joke-Scandinavian name GNØER. The band has dropped the power-trio approach in favor of songs that are darkly danceable and heavily digitized. Goner may be gone, but the songwriting, the soaring hooks and the chemistry have evolved as GNØER.
