Vatican City Runaways

I caught a recent Vatican City Runaways performance and got a chance to chat with VCR main (and only) man, Joe Godek. Super nice guy. The kind of guy you'd like to have as a friend even though you know you could never be half the man he is even if you were taller.

I also picked up VCR's new (limited to 100 copies) CD-R "No Treaty Summer". One, 51-minute track which Godek says people are wrongly comparing to an old English folk song that has yet to be discovered. "It's a new sound for VCR. I'm growing as an artist and channeling all kinds of music from all over the place but this piece has obvious roots."

"Thematically, it's similar to the familiar lullaby 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' but the tonality has been deconstructed to bring to the fore all the micro-tones that are battling it out where your ears can't hear. I wanted to respect the honesty of the song and bring it back to it's roots" Godek explains.

"Originally, 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' was a Choctaw Indian hunting chant which can be roughly translated as 'Skin, Skin, Skin the deer that the mother goddess has given to you.' Unfortunately, most people now associate the song with the Bolsheviks and the origins of communist Russia. I just wanted to recapture the simple, organic beauty of the original with a phalanx of effects pedals, samplers and synthesizers."

It's a stirring piece of music thathas been on heavy rotation around the office.

You should jump at the chance to check out Vatican City Runaways live. Joe says he'll be performing "No Treaty Summer" in it's entirety live only until the first frost at which time it will be retired and any remaining copies of the CD will be buried in a location to be revealed to Godekwhile on a vision quest during his annual "Fall Back to Fun" tag-team football tournament.