Wojtek Godzisz

[Photo Credit: Tom McShane]

I almost didn't listen to Wojtek Godzisz due to his appearance. The long unkempt hair, the burly mountain man beard, and the frolicking in the mud just screamed "hippy" to me. I don't know about you, but I find hippies really annoying. I don't know if it's the idealism or the patchwork clothing, the bongo/hackey sack circles or the god awful jam bands... they're just my krytonite. I see one walking down the street and I get this powerful impulse to yell "take a shower!" Little kids know that that type of shit is wrong, but apparently I do not.

Beard or no beard, it would have been a shame if I had skipped over Wojtek Godzisz because the guy is a major talent. It's not that he's really doing anything different than anyone else in the last ten odd years, he just writes great songs. But even after listening to "I Will Give You Nothing" fifteen times in a row, it still boggles my mind how he somehow takes conventional elements like song forms and instrumentation and makes them sound completely fresh. It may be his seasoned voice, which alternates between devastatingly unemotional and restrained on the verses (think Smog) and intensely animated on the choruses (think radio friendly pop perfection). Or maybe it's because Godzisz put together the elements in such a way that energy ebbs and flows masterfully throughout the song until the final climax. Whatever the reason, I can't wait for his debut EP to come out in the near future.

[MySpace] Wojtek Godzisz
[mp3] "I Will Give You Nothing"