"The Best Looking Band In The World"(OE048)
(click on song titles to hear MP3's!)
1. check out my lava lamp
2. shot in the head
3. my balls
4. best song on the mix
5. burn yer skull
shawn setaro- guitar
steve brykman--drums
matt savage-vocals
daniel madri- guitar, bass, vocals
now how about some reviews!
from Stubble Magazine
GODBOY - The Best Looking Band in the World
This shit has so many influences strewn throughout that I don’t know where to begin. Sort of a blistering bar band with a distinct swampy twist. If you’re into witty lyrics and solid melodies with absurdly pleasing harmonies then this sucker is for you. Don’t be an ass. Pick this one up.
from The Noise
GODBOY - 5 song CD
The Best Looking Band in the World
This CD was all over the place stylistically. Fortunately, for me, the songs were interesting and catchy. The songs were reminiscent of the Pogues, Bjork, and Beck. The CD starts off in a ‘90s way with, “Roll it, Kick it Stevie B.” (Steve Brykman, the drummer), melodic noise and vocals through a PA. They’re a tight group of four. Syncopated rhythms with moving guitar lines, add vocals on top and you have a song that would have made a classically trained musician proud- “Shot in the Head.” The music is challenging and masterfully executed. The rhythms and changes are as complex as a giant spider web. You can’t just get up on a stage and play these kinds of songs-they take a lot of practice. They contain starts, stops, well-timed staccato screams, accented vocals with punchy harmonies that do not sound breathy, the list of devices could go on. This band is definitely pushing the envelope of convention to the deserted mail stops in the Rocky Mountains, though. Not many people live there. Matt Savage, the lead singer, has a pleasant enough voice featured on the tracks “My Balls” and “Best Song on the Mix.” I don’t agree with the band. The song I liked the best was the first track, “Check Out My Lava Lamp.” It’s not like anything you’ll hear out there right now. It’s Love & Rockets meets funk.
Godboy has a sense of humor. The backside of the CD features a man who needs a wedgie. It was good for an initial laugh. The song, “My Balls” has hysterical lyrics. Lines like, “Since you left, my balls have been feeling pretty blue” and, “They’re full of jealousy, they’re full of wrath, they’re full of babies we’ll never have” are sure to bring a smirk to your lips. It’s as silly as giving your willy a name.
- Joanie Pfister
from Lollipop Magazine
GODBOY
The Best Looking Band in the World
Whoo-wee! Just when your faith is almost completely drained by the stack of shitty demos from local weekend warriors, you’re lucky enough to stumble across an unsigned band that rocks your world. It almost makes it all worth it. Almost. Within the first few seconds of Godboy’s opening track, “Check Out My Lava Lamp,” the boom-beat and distorted ranting accompanied by dirty slide guitar scream the quote “Beantown’s answer to Beck.” Produced by Andrew Murdock at New Alliance “I thought he went by Mudrock?), you get the feeling that the open-sounding thumps of bass and butt-shakin’ snare thwack! are intentionally non-cluttered. That’s a polite way of saying a major label woulda phatted the fuck out of this, so it’s probably better in this less-is- hip realm. When “Shot in the Head” chugs in with a bit o’ acoustic powerchording and a riff that’d fit in A-Ha’s “Take on Me,” you’re kinda confused even before singer Matt Savage lilts in with a vibrato-soaked voice somewhere between Geddy Lee and Theo from the Lunachicks. Crisp, crimped lyrics in a high range, accented by yelps and squawks; you get the impression that I couldn’t describe this song if I tried. But me like. “My Balls,” believe it or not, is a sweet ballad. Dreamy acoustic guitar tip-toes as Savage (ahem, can’t get past the incongruity of the name) tells the wispy tale of having a disagreement with his balls. “Best Song on the Mix” kinda follows, but not really. Man, ‘80s rockheads would totally dig the catch-in- the-throat yips and wild tremolo of the vocals (think of the snarls and ripped vocals of 4 Non Blondes’ Linda Perry) if they could get past the subtleties. This ain’t cock rock by a longshot, but the singer’s got a voice, ya know? And there’s a guitar solo. Man, what the hell do you call this? Then “Burn Yer Skull” launches out of your speakers like a Gibby Haynes rockathon, all distortion and driving rock, but with twisted melodies that’ll warp yer brain if you’re fool enough to try to sing along. Transition into a “sweet” chorus sung through a bullhorn, and harmonized accordingly. It’s at about this time that you’re bobbing your head, not so much in a “gosh, this is catchy” way as in a “it’s 4 a.m. and the hallway keeps running into me” sorta thing. Maybe you catch my drift. Hopefully you’re upwind. This is bizarre. I like it.
from Metronome
GODBOY
“THE BEST LOOKING BAND IN THE WORLD”
5-SONG CD
Mixing funky tempos with hard rock riffs and a Nestle’s crunch bar, the quartet of Godboy has turned the music world on it’s behind and given it a good swift boot in the cheeks. Their lyrics are demented (Shot in the Head) and sickening (My Balls), however, they hit the nail on the head more often than not.
This 5-song sampler is also the best sounding effort (sonically) to date by this Berklee inducted group. Don’t take them too seriously and you’ll have a rollicking good time listening to their sinuous tales. Expect more than they’re offering, and you’ll be marching them to the gallows poles.
from Northeast Performer
Godboy - The Best Looking Band In The World
5 Track CD
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered and Produced by Andrew Murdock at New Alliance Productions
Godboy have a funny knack for being cleverly offensive. As in “Best Song On The Mix,” a song about the song itself “This song will express a lot of things that I can’t tell you when we’re face to face / like sometimes when you’re talking, your mouth looks like an asshole / It’s the sort of thing that I’m reluctant to tell you...” But despite it’s manner, lyrics like these are delivered politely and creatively, and set to some bare-necessity garage pop that gives it solid credibility.
The base crudeness to their album, Best Looking Band in the World, is washed lightly with effects and audio oddities that give them just the right cacophonous background. There is a heavy Ween influence to Godboy. It’s that same mischievous twinkle in the eye of every guy who still sees the humor in a fart and remembers the enjoyment of burning army-men. “I wouldn’t say we sound like them necessarily, but our approach is the same,” says guitarist/vocalist Dan Madri.
Though officially conceived in 1990, Dan and vocalist, Matt Savage have been playing together since their earlier teen-metal years, when Mettalica and Megadeth held the secrets to life. Time went on and various bands came and went. They met drummer, Steve Brykman while he was the MC for a show they played at U Mass and offered his talents. Later on they complied, Steve joined the band, and guitarist Shawn Setaro came on after answering an ad in the paper.
“At first we wanted a huge array of instruments...we never intended Godboy to be so acoustic...” said Dan, who played bass on the recording for the album but normally plays guitar live (an acoustic with nylon strings for a heavier sound). “Personally, I like our four-track stuff better, only because it’s more indicative of our style on stage.”
Their first demo, Smell The Fury, was recorded entirely on four-track and released earlier in 1997. Though considerably less studio-sounding than Best Looking Band In The World, it maintains the raw weirdness that Godboy emits, and shows their knack for writing great simple fun songs. At heart, Godboy does a good job of bearing a great personality through the music. They are crude and base, yet creative and volatile, a byproduct of warped techniques and styles.
In “Shot In The Head,” Matt’s voice is very characteristic, slightly nasally, but sharp and caustic. There is also an excellent back-up falsetto in the chorus that gives the song its playful aspect, while the stepladder Angus Young guitar riffs make it a very catchy tune. There is often a little “trick” to each of these songs as well; a little bit of sneering-sweetness that each track contains. “My Balls” is a perfectly good example. What seems to be a happy, pinging, teen-age, full-moon, achy-breaky love song soon evolves into the despairing syrupy sexless dirge of a woman’s departure “So my balls might / hold a grudge / might behave strangely / like you never knew them at all / There full of jealousy / They’re full of wrath / they’re full of babies / we’ll never have...since you left / my balls been feeling / pretty blue...”
Godboy is pretty prevalent in the Boston area, having played Mama Kin’s, Bill’s Bar, TT’s, O’Brien’s, to name a few, so keep an eye out for them and help them realize their mission statement “To conquer all forms of media and become all-powerful and also to be sex symbols.”
Amen.
- Rev. Keith W. Harris
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