"You’d keep me dumb in my room to spend my time with myself and my gloom / Playing songs just to get along strum along to my favorite tunes..."
The angst framed tilting house that is "Care Takers" by New York's No Singing, the debut from Ben Godfrey (aka Belaver) and collaborator Michael Regino, feels at once dark but acerbic, like an emo grunge bedroom pop song completely crafted from midnight to 2 in the morning (at least in my assumptive brain). Godfrey describes this as an "existential pop track (with 90's nostalgic)" having "Alex G/Butthole Surfers vibes" and I get what he means and am a long standing Butthole Surfers fan while. I also, for whatever reason, feeling a sort of amalgam of Gorillaz and Meat Puppets with a size of Flaming Lips. Of course all this is just descriptors for descriptors sake and No Singing is their own thing.
I love the acoustic guitar-ness of this track as a rhythmic engine with the machine beat (or real drums) doing heavy duty feeling so active and shuffling against the sort of sludgey cadence. When the bass drops in, with sparse piano, the song opens up, feels hip hop dense while sparse. Godfrey's sort of tubular, midrange vocal sound is perfect, cuts through, feels appropriately detached while feeling desperate to be part of... something. The ghostly background vocal adds to the distress in a truly artful way. Speaking for a moment to the 90's lean. I have often, maybe not often but periodically mentioned on this blog that my favorite Movie soundtrack is William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet: Music From the Motion Picture (1996). That soundtrack is nearly 30 years old and it still holds up. Well, "Care Takers" could be dropped into that collection of songs perfectly and feel as if it has always been there.
"Care Takers" is a track that I instantly was attracted to but it didn't win me over, now after a few listens it lives in part of my brain, the part that is my happy place.
Cool.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[No Singing, the new bedroom pop project from Ben Godfrey (Belaver, listenlisten), trades the baroque pop and live arrangements of his earlier work for something more produced and nostalgic. Godfrey's music has always been psychologically raw, exploring the dark with a blend of deadpan humor, but "Care Takers" feels more personal, like uncovering old journals from your adolescence. The track's narrative is deceptively simple: sneak out, find a car, drive until it dies. But lines like "bone dry not yet a grown fish" add a sly humor, while the refrain "wish I was out there now" becomes both mantra and admission of defeat. The lo-fi production keeps everything close, letting Godfrey's intimate vocal delivery do the heavy lifting. Perfect for curators seeking authentic bedroom pop that captures urban isolation and the specific loneliness of going nowhere fast.]
Robb Donker Curtius
LYRICS
You’d keep me dumb in my room to spend my time with myself and my gloom
Playing songs just to get along strum along to my favorite tunes
Go sneakin out into the night I’d prowl looking for anything to do
find a car and try to get real far get as far as I can get from you
Care takers
Roam around see whats in the town nothin open no one to be found
Kill the lights coast until it dies let it roll and stop where it might
Take a beat sprawl out the street check out the stars through the glow of the other cars
Care takers
not high except for a death wish
bone dry not yet a grown fish
am I bred to be average
so why don’t I feel discouraged
wish I was out there now
Nothin ever changes it all stays the same years pass and memories fade but the way you feel will never change
You can move your body to another place but your brain will always be there to keep you right from where you came
it’s a funny game It’s a sick charade it’s a joke we never tell cause we live the punchline every day
Playing songs just to get along strum along to my favorite tunes
Go sneakin out into the night I’d prowl looking for anything to do
find a car and try to get real far get as far as I can get from you
Care takers
Roam around see whats in the town nothin open no one to be found
Kill the lights coast until it dies let it roll and stop where it might
Take a beat sprawl out the street check out the stars through the glow of the other cars
Care takers
not high except for a death wish
bone dry not yet a grown fish
am I bred to be average
so why don’t I feel discouraged
wish I was out there now
Nothin ever changes it all stays the same years pass and memories fade but the way you feel will never change
You can move your body to another place but your brain will always be there to keep you right from where you came
it’s a funny game It’s a sick charade it’s a joke we never tell cause we live the punchline every day
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/nosinging
https://nosinging.bandcamp.com/track/care-takers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLWmJW1WvG0
https://ffm.to/nosinging-caretakers
No Singing, the new bedroom pop project from Ben Godfrey (Belaver, listenlisten), trades the baroque pop and live arrangements of his earlier work for something more produced and nostalgic.
No Singing, alt rock, indie rock, duo / solo / band, debut track "Care Takers", New York, centered around Ben Godfrey (Belaver, ListenListen), collaborator Michael Regino, AlexG meets Butthole Surfers, experimental,
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