May 2021’s featured artist is Toronto-based band, Glutenhead, who share a brand new song with us this month, “Spinal Cord.” Songwriter Benjamin Shapiro shares the inspiration for the song, below:
“Spinal Cord” is a song about divinity. Not to do with any particular religious denomination, but divinity in the personal sense. Some might call this “romance”. In the sense of breath, of motion, of colour. The song is meant to convey the same feeling as a brush dragging a line of paint across a canvas, of that moment, once in a while, when you can see clearly. Really clearly. And your whole life is there in front of you. And it makes sense. But anyway, maybe none of that comes across in the music! It’s also a love song. Make of it what you will. If you notice more than a little Leonard Cohen influence in this one, you’re definitely not off-base. I wrote this song in the summer of 2020, in a pool of my own sweat and in love with the romance of it all.
“Spinal Cord” will be released later this year on an EP of dramatic folk songs, which is a real departure for Glutenhead. We released a self-titled EP last summer full of some wild, off-the-wall indie rock stuff, but our goal is to never stay in one place musically and to constantly be expanding our scope and our sound. Also coming out later this year will be a collection of psych-rock freakout type songs, some Exile On Main Street-type country rock, and some other explorations.
- Benjamin Shapiro
“Spinal Cord” lyrics:
we blush, we lay
in different ways
that I cannot explain
in touch, in breath
written on your head
was the faithful healer’s name
but lines can bleed
it’s plain to see
what we have is not what we made
the time has come
to look at the sun
so we may never see again
————
a leaf falls off
a single tree, the woods
dare not grieve
a dirty love
impossibly
a postured pocket of pleas
your spinal cord
it spoke to me
and so i told it “you take the lead”
captured in
our slanted sway
was everything we’ll ever need
————
we had another drink
and we talked of how we think
things are better than they have been before
Find Glutenhead on:
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Spotify
Youtube
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
TikTok
