Bye Bye Twenty Twenty-GooseberThree
What, you've got a cleverer title?
Yes, it’s that time of year. Ms. Mariah Carey has been omnipresent for weeks now. Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. Companies you utterly and completely forgot about are making sure you’re aware of both their end-of-year sale and a privacy policy you allegedly consented to.1 An endless barrage of lists that definitely weren’t made in the first half of this year by an underpaid intern who no longer even has that job and were slated for release on [insert whichever content warehouse you get your daily dopamine hit from].
All jokes aside, the holiday season means time with loved ones, time for rest and recuperation, and taking a moment to reflect on a year that was. 2023 has been, without a doubt, the biggest year for Gooseberry on record. We embarked our first winter tour and our first summer tour, the latter of which saw us travel over 6,000 miles across 10+ states and 2 countries. (If somehow you missed all the reportage on that, you can start here). We released new music into the world—Validate Me EP—and got our first algorithmic blessing as Orbit was placed onto a Spotify Editorial playlist, sending our streaming numbers up into… ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜) . We inked our first distribution deal and our first sync licensing deal. We played our biggest headline ever to 500 of you crazy folks at the iconic Bowery Ballroom. And we somehow came back in (mostly) one piece from all that time on the road.
But most of all, we got to spend time with you, our fans, our friends, our beloved flock of deformed birdfruit. The best part about being on the road playing shows is that, no matter where we go, we meet the most incredible people from all walks of life, looking to come together for a time and shake their ass to some good music. It is one of the great joys of this life that we’re able to deliver on that expectation. The gratitude we have for all of you knows no bounds. To every one of you who came out to a show, or bought merch, or streamed us online, or used us as a trump card after that one annoying hipster friend of yours was running their mouth about knowing all these indie bands2 and you simply couldn’t take it anymore: we salute you.
I wrote an initial draft of this edition of the Gazette that broke out different sections highlighting the cool shit we did this year. But y’all read this newsletter. You’re aware. You know this band is nothing without you. And that’s 100% true.
But what some of you may not know is that we kept a yearbook for the entire year. From our very first show of the year back in January with our brothers Cab Ellis, to our Validation Tour, and on through hitting the road with BabyJake and Hotel Fiction, we set our yearbook out at every single merch stand along the way. The premise was simple: each stop would feature the following:
The date, venue, and location of the show that night
A drawing by our artist-in-residence (William Ives Hammond)
From there, the rest was up to you. And boy, did you deliver.
We managed to fill up every single page in that yearbook3, front to back. Eventually, I will make some cool video thingy out of it. But for now, what better way to end the year then by showcasing our awesome, creative, hilarious, curiously deranged fans…
Thank you. We love you. See you in Twenty Twenty GooseberryFour.
That reminds me, by subscribing to this newsletter you agree to allow Gooseberry full rights to your name, image, likeness, sense of humor, your dog, up to 48% of your daily potassium intake, your first, fourth, and ninth funniest saved meme, and the love and admiration of your peers that you desperately crave and are unaware they feel for you.
Yes, Preston, Boygenius and IDLES are fine to have as your entire personality. You’re really quite something!
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