Godcaster Share New Single 'Lady Said a Body' Ahead of Upcoming Tour

Today the rapturous Brooklyn art-rockers Godcaster released a new one-off single title "Lady Said a Body." The single arrives on the heels of their acclaimed self-titled sophomore LP and ahead of their upcoming tour of North America and Europe this Fall.

The forthcoming excursion includes headlining dates on the west coast and shows supporting Deeper, Model/Actriz, and Panchiko, as well as festival appearances at Pitchfork London, Mutations Brighton and London Calling.

“Lady Said a Body” is another transition for the ever-changing Godcaster, a tunnel on a railway forward to the band’s next shape. There is a light at the end of the passage—is it hope or cause for concern?

The psychedelic fable unfurls gently at first, sparkling keys and synthesizers flicker across the early moments like lightning bugs in a summer field before Judson Kolk’s vocals float through in a haze. “Lady” is a brief surrealist tale of physicality, otherworldly evil, and unrequited love, about worldmaking in a corrupted biosphere, “Everything she did had wings / All she said could talk.”

The song recounts a story written by Kolk inspired by the myth of Hades and Persephone, of a teenage track star named Lady from a middle-American town called Watershed that makes heroes of its track and field athletes.

As the story progresses, the music begins to flourish. Mesmerizing harmonies emphasize and reinforce the dreamlike setting while the drums, acoustic and electric guitars, and bass bloom and texture the song with more naturalistic qualities as well. It is all delicately played but at an increasingly anxious tempo. Lady learns she is being fawned over by Zebra Elvis Zeus, a man from a different world with unclear intent, and she begins to fall into disturbing trances when she runs, moving so quickly that the world turns red with blood.

The propulsion that carries the song to its close makes it clear that we are moving toward something, but it is hard to tell where along the spiraling gyre we reside. Amidst one of Lady’s trance-runs she slips down a muddy bank and is swallowed by the endless dark of a swamp and the music cuts there.

Godcaster is constantly in transfiguration, and the raw ferocity of the band’s eponymous LP is quieted and obfuscated on “Lady Said a Body.” Electronics and vocals through a new, hallucinogenic gauze signal yet another form for the protean group who have already grown and morphed so much since their spritely and jovial debut. It’s hard to say exactly where this kaleidoscopic interlude might take Godcaster next, but it certainly will be somewhere uncharted and viscously bright.

TOUR DATES

NORTH AMERICA

Sep 20 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls

Sep 21 - Indianapolis, IN @ Healer *

Sep 22 - Detroit, MI @ El Club *

Sep 23 - Toronto, ON @ The Baby G *

Sep 24 - Montreal, QB @ Bar Le 'Ritz' PDB *

Sep 25 - Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom *

Sep 27 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made *

Sep 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's *

Sep 29 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *

Sep 30 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook *

Oct 2 - Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room @ Third Man Records *

Oct 3 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl *

Oct 4 - New Orleans, LA @ Santos *

Oct 5 - Houston, TX @ Black Magic *

Oct 6 - Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas

Oct 9 - Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit

Oct 10 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar #

Oct 11 - Los Angeles, CA @ Genghis Cohen #

Oct 12 - Berkeley, CA @ Ivy Room #

Oct 13 - San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout

Oct 15 - Portland, OR @ Mano Oculta 

OCT 17 - Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern

Oct 20 - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club

Oct 22 - Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village

EUROPE

Oct 26 - Antwerpen, BE @ Trix

Oct 27 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique

Oct 28 - Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling

Oct 30 - Southampton, UK @ Heartbreakers

Oct 31 - Oxford, UK @ The Jericho Tavern

Nov 1 - Guildford, UK @ The Boileroom

Nov 2 - Portsmouth, UK @ The Loft

Nov 3 - Brighton, UK @ Mutations Brighton

Nov 4 - Manchester, UK @ YES ^

Nov 6 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds ^

Nov 7 - Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast

Nov 8 - Leeds, UK @ Headrow House

Nov 9 - Bristol, UK @ Thekla %

Nov 10 - Margate, UK @ Elsewhere Record Store

Nov 11 - London, UK @ Pitchfork London

Nov 11 - Margate, UK @ Elsewhere Record Store

Nov 13 - Cologne, DE @ Helios37 ^

Nov 14 - Barcelona, ES @ Sidecar

Nov 15 - Madrid, ES @ Wurlitzer Ballroom

Nov 16 - Dublin, IE @ Workman's Cellar

* with Deeper

# with Brutus VIII

^ with Model/Actriz

% with Panchiko

Photo by Caleb Dudley