Our Bandcamp of the Day goes to Oakland’s Skway Man who recently shared two new singles of upcoming album The World Only Ends When You Die, out October 23 on Mama Bird Recording Co.
Skyway Man is a semi-futuristic character developed by songwriter James Wallace and put to a variety of sometimes psychedelic sometimes vintage-sounding music. Wallace labels each of these tracks as chapters in the saga of The World Only Ends When You Die and breaks down the storyline:
Old Swingin’ Bell – The near-death experience has had some unforeseen effect, and now the character is visited by a Spirit Guide. This one is a trickster, beckoning the Character to not address the strange times coming on the planet, but to wander aimlessly into the seductive “Stereo light of amusement.” “Don’t worry, some kind of afterlife awaits, regardless,” It tells them to, “tilt back the bottle, hold my selfish hand.” “Don’t worry, Jesus already took the fall.
Did Ya Know Him? – Over time, this path draws the Character into a self-destructive tailspin. The Character imagines himself as a narrator obsessively making his own eulogy. The midpoint of the song is the Character losing/destroying oneself in this obsession, lying on the bathroom floor (possibly in a suicidal arrangement?). The outro section, AKA “the long list of commands,” is an angelic intervention. They attempt to subvert the Character’s death by changing the death into a deep, deep sleep where at least, instead of death, there’s an opportunity of climbing oneself out, slowly, with great will.
Pre-order The World Only Ends When You Die and find more from Skyway Man on Bandcamp.
