BenGodwin.com

I’ve finished uploading my back catalogue to Bandcamp (at least as far back as 2003- anything before then can be presumed to have evaporated or demagnetised.)

You can listen to ShinyShiny, Lighter Than The Atom and Skin And Bone in their entirety. Some tracks are also free to download in 128kpbs MP3 if you so choose – mouse over the ‘Download’ link to find the free ones.

I intend to keep putting my stuff up, as I release it, to stream in full, for free, forever.* As well as the Bandcamp site, I’m looking in to ways to get my stuff into places like Spotify, Pandora, etc. It’s already on last.fm. Expect to see ‘unreleased’ stuff on Bandcamp too. Did I mention you should join Spotify? You should join Spotify.

These recordings can also be bought on pieces of plastic (!) that I have printed, and store in my house (?!) then send halfway around the world (!?!) so that, for more money than you could have them instantly (??) you can have them sent halfway around the world =again= so you can listen to them in a week or so (!??!) Which does, let’s face it, seem like an awful lot of trouble to just listen to some music. (Did I mention that, given that they’re plastic, CDs are an environmental disaster? Damn. Well, at least they’re recyclable.)

(*not counting apocalyptic scenarios, obsolesence of the internet, or me getting signed to one of those fuddy-duddy major labels.)

Popularity: 23% [?]

The problem with the internet- in fact, this is a problem with computers in general- is that just as soon as you’ve built something and got it working just the way you want it, someone comes up with a better way to do the thing you just spent ages perfecting.

Bugger.

And yet, hurrah, because now you can make it work even better, if  you just spend one more evening tinkering…

All of which is a long winded way of saying: ‘Skin And Bone’ is now up on Bandcamp‘. Rest of my discs to follow. Listen to everything for free, download a bunch of stuff for free, pay what you want if you want to download the rest, no DRM, and all wrapped up in a tasty Creative Commons license.

Lovely!

Popularity: 24% [?]

In the middle of all this emigrating malarkey I somehow found time to co-produce and mix the new Costello album. Dan, the titular bandleader, is a long time collaborator who lives under the stage at the Brooklyn Tea Party- the venue he runs with his bandmates. We walled ourselves in there without the benefit of AC for three of the hottest days of the summer and made a fine racket. Anyway, the album is nearly done, and Dan has posted one of the cuts for a first listen. Have a listen to ‘Tape Recorder’!

Popularity: 100% [?]

A couple of months back I heard that One Tree Hill were naming an episode after my song ‘Hate Is Safer Than Love’. I got all excited, seeing as the show has carried music from some of my favourite bands, but then I discovered they weren’t actually using the song. Bleh.

Hurrah, then, for Youtube user thexrafa, who made it possible for me to pretend, at least for a moment, that the CW played my stuff to 3 million people. Watch it after the jump- (more…)

Popularity: 72% [?]

I didn’t realise this was a song until I happened across the chorus, forgotten in my notebook, and it exploded. The ‘dinosaurs are drinking gasoline’ line reflects a hope that we’ll give up these dumb tin boxes before too long… but if we don’t the roaches will do just fine without us. Lead track from ‘Skin And Bone’.

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Walking out on 14th St the hollow people know
The secret bargain that the city seeks to make
The city’s hunger is a ghost that’s growing stronger
With every stolen mouthful that it takes
Manhattan is an island of privateers and pirates
The sunken treasure of a rich and stinking ship
I ride the tunnels with the rest you know I try my best
To fight the panic as the stitches start to rip

(more…)

Popularity: 31% [?]

New York like a traffic accident that you can’t not watch, appalled and fascinated. Title track off ‘Skin And Bone’. Julie LaMendola plays amazing saw on the album version.

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Poverty’s a crime in the poorhouse
And the punishment is life
The lucky ones work in the slaughterhouse
And the rest go under the knife
Hunger is a crime in the madhouse
Where the gutters are running with fat
Liberty depends on consumption
Is there anything wrong with that

Skin and bone, skin and bone, skin and bone
And you’re very very far from home, skin and bone

(more…)

Popularity: 24% [?]

Too much long distance flying, all the cities start to merge into one big one with the countryside around them a distant memory. Written on glimpsing the third world that you can disappear into in America if you go mad, lose your health insurance, or fail to pay your rent. Originally appeared on ‘Skin And Bone’.

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Come away with me and we’ll have ourselves a life in the new world city
Trade this stubborn farmland for a million neon nights in the new world city
We’ll build a house on a piece of torn up land
Made of board and tin with our own bare hands
In the new world city

(more…)

Popularity: 23% [?]

Written in Hyde Park on the occasion of Ms Fishuncle’s birthday, and originally released on ‘Four Songs’ before resurfacing on =shinyshiny= and finally =shiny/atom.

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You and me and a bottle of wine
A summer’s evening by the serpentine
Lying still while the world goes by
Around and around and around

You and me and a bottle of wine
A recipe for a beautiful time
And all the people in their feathers fine
Strut around and around and around (more…)

Popularity: 21% [?]

First appeared on =shinyshiny= and later reissued as part of the =shiny/atom set.

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I get dizzy counting the days
I’ve been living my life in a daydream
Time ticking along
I didn’t want to listen to the radio or watch the TV
I didn’t want to hear about
All these bitter things out there in the world

Words and deceit and metal that shines
Like a hook in the back of the life of your mind
So hard to fight, so easy to close your eyes
Roll over dreamer slip and away (more…)

Popularity: 22% [?]