Sid Swift and the Sorry Sods
featuring Matt "The Flash" Voss and Addison "Sid Swift" Godel

Songs  -   History  -   Shows  -  Recordings  -  Links

With guitars, keyboards, percussive objects, toy horns, software drum machines, and other miscellaneous devices, we've created a bunch of songs that we see as mixing folk, pop, electronica and even a little bit of punk for good measure.  Give us a listen - we sincerely would love for you to enjoy our music!  Keep in touch - contact info is at the bottom.

Songs:  

We have a lot of them.  Here are a few that I can remember at the moment.  The songs below are either part of our official set or things that, while problematic, haven't been completely given-up on yet.  Songs with a € are finished for inclusion on the debut Sid Swift CD, tentatively titled Malamourocking.  The Deactivated Songs were moved to their own separate page because there were so many of them, but then I lost the page.  Hopefully it will return soon!

Come Home, Little Dogie: Urgent rock chords underneath a plaintive country lyric, one of the most promising new songs as of September 2002.

Cottonmouth: A "story song" about a man who did all sorts of things, depending which story-song cliches and lines of movie dialogue Addison is remembering while he's singing it. 

€ Danelectro (Download complete studio version): One of our earliest tracks that still survives, this song sings of the merits and dangers of the cheap Korean guitar that Matt plays when we "plug in."  Filled with fuzz and entertaining wordplay. 

€ Goodbye Sand Castle: An angry, throbbing rocker about a relationship which collapses in the middle of a dramatic external conflict.

Havin' Fun: An upbeat, poppy song about having fun.  Unfinished.

Here Comes Johnny: ?

Joe's House: Darkly urgent, this Addison composition is going through many different variations to see what works best.

€ Let's Cruise: Based around mangled misrememberings of Beach Boys and Beat Happening songs, Let's Cruise is a chugging, organ-and-guitar driven song rife with public domain samples and lyrics concerning the arrogance of hot-rodders.  Includes the famous guest appearance by Athens luminary Deep Sea Dave!

Magma!: This is an Eshniner Forest song (available on the EF "Halloween Tape" and the Homemade Junction compilation tape) which we learned for the Mix-Up Show on March 7 2003.  We tried to emphasize the song's harder-rocking elements, but our sloppy performance doomed this effort.  However, it was well-received.

She's So Abrupt: Our very first song, and destined to be our standard show-closer; "She's So Abrupt" was written as an attempt to summarize the actions of one particularly confusing friend of ours at the time.

Testing 1 2 3: ?

€ The Only One I Knew (Download complete studio version): A story song whose meaning is left ambiguous.  Stridently chorded by Matt and with a spirited vocal by Addison.  Also known as "Ballad of a Sand Man" for no good reason at all.

The Roare of the Lion: Along with its counterparts The Roare of the Liar, The Roare of the Tomb, and The Roare of Hell, this is the most promising piece to come out of our attempts to be Soundgarden.  Still in a formative state as of this writing.

To His Majesty In The Ether: The bizarre, art-rock inspired title for the folksy "Southern spiritual" which audiences know as "Oh, I Should Go."  One of Matt's finest synchronized vocal/guitar runs, and so far the only song to feature much in the way of harmony.

Turbo Surfer: An offbeat and frankly very unsettling narrative about a former sailor.

Where'd You Been? (Download soundproof room recording): Arguably Matt's finest moment as a songwriter to date, this incredible call-and-response number bounces around on piano, drums, and guitar, with the band screaming just-this-side-of-nonsense back and forth at each other.

Above: Matt on guitar.  Below: Addison on keytar.  Photo by Ryan Bousquet; subsequently cropped and rearranged by me (Addison Godel).  We both look very goofy in these.

We are performing "Magma!" at the 3/7/2003 "Mix-Up Show" at Ryan, Matt, Matthew, and Missy's house.

History:  

Today, The Sorry Sods are one of the most talked-about bands in Athens, Georgia; our unique brand of carefully constructed folk-pop-rock has turned ears from all different strands of the famous Athens scene.  But how did we get to where we are now?  Read on and find out.

Matt and I first organized as a titanic musical team in the winter of 2000/spring of 2001; goofing around in Matt's dorm room, we conceived of ourselves as a fictitious, hypothetical band that would itself be a spinoff of another fictitious, hypothetical band - the barnstorming Ramones cover band, Gastropod (membership: Matt and hallmate Cory Gresham).  This nonexistant side project of a nonexistant group operated under several different aliases, chief among them Orange Nightmare and The Pistachios before settling on Sid Swift and the Sorry Sods.  I had lobbied hard for "Sid Swift and His Sorry Sods," but was overruled.  As time passed through the spring, the band became slightly more real - a number of songs were kicked around, and three ("She's So Abrupt," "Danelectro," and "Hit The Plane Down" - the last a Pavement cover) were recorded using a cheap tape recorder, Matt's Danelectro guitar, and an unfinished papier-mache head (for percussion).   

Following summer vacation, the band reconvened, now sharing a dorm room in the same building and intent on producing material light-years ahead of their earlier work.  The results included many songs that, like so much related to the Sid Swift world, did not technically exist in anything but name, but the vibe was promising.  By Christmas 2001, many signature tracks were emerging: Cottonmouth, Where'd You Been, To His Majesty In The Ether, etc.  Practice usually took place in the dorm room, but one memorable session took us to a soundproof room at the University of Georgia's School of Music, to covertly write and record in utter sonic seclusion (and inescapable heat and thirst). 

The band's mission was to have as much fun as possible while creating tuneful stuff that could at some remote future point hypothetically have enough strength to use while opening for such local luminaries as Green Bean Go.  In June of 2002, this dream came true, when Sid Swift and the Sorry Sods were the first of four amazing acts to perform at Natalie Beall's duplex.  A very good time was had by all, and, while reviewing the tapes, Matt and I made up our minds to further improve our material to make it more presentable as something other than a charming inside joke.  Following my summer away from America and some other obstacles, the band reunited for a productive series of jams in the Fall of 2002, which eventually yielded a huge pile of new but fragmentary material, which began to coalesce under pressure into new songs in preparation for a series of living-room shows in early 2003.  Meanwhile, we also appeared on the Homemade Junction cassette (see below), the seminal document of a new revolution in homemade music.  At the time of this writing, our band has between two and five songs completed for our upcoming full-length self-published debut CD, Malamourocking. 

More to come as the performance of history continues!

Top: Addison on harmonica.  Bottom: Matt on guitar.  This is our living room during Homemade Junction II; we are performing "Goodbye Sand Castle."  Polaroids taken and donated by local artist Kim Kirby.

Recordings:  

Sid Swift is so far featured on the following publicly available recordings:

The Homemade Junction cassette assembled by Green Bean Go luminary Travis Hallenbeck.  The tape features demos of the Sid Swift songs Cottonmouth, Where'd You Been?, The Only One I Knew, and also debuts the "studio recorded" versions of Danelectro and Let's Cruise.  Even more importantly, Homemade Junction also includes other rising stars of the new Athens revolution: the entrancing Pigeons, the spellbinding Eshniner Forest, the fun-loving Bern and Jamelle Bolar, the wistful Matthew's Ghost, the challenging Bobby Corvette and the Pony Express and the unforgettable, unmistakable, unreplacable Green Bean Go (and more)!  You can get a copy of Homemade Junction for only $3; to learn how, go here.

Also, the first Homemade Junction Live Album is now available in viciously edited form as a CD, created and packaged by me (Addison).  There is one Sorry Sods song and one Addison solo song, as well as tons of other amazing songs by other people.  Click here to learn all about the CD and how to get one for very cheap.

And now, the followup: the second Homemade Junction Live Album, hosted at our house, is also available as a CD.  It features the live debut of the Sorry Sods song "Goodbye Sand Castle," plus fifteen other amazing performances by others.  A must have!  Click here for information.

Above: Matt jams on a toy horn during the "The Only One I Knew" sessions.

Shows:

Travis & Javier's, January 10 2003 (Homemade Junction Live I): The Sorry Sods, along with Addison solo, appeared in the semi-unplugged, lo-fi music festival Homemade Junction (named after the cassette of the same name; see Recordings), at which each invited band or interested party placed its name in a box.  Travis drew the first act (Matthew's Ghost), and from that point on, each act, after finishing, drew the name of the next person up.  A grand time was had by all; the Sorry Sods performed "The Only One I Knew," then near completion, and Addison played "Crush Song."  Click here for more info, or to learn how to get the live CD, available now!

X-Ray Cafe, January 17 2003 (Electronic Music Night): Not a Sorry Sods performance per se, but Addison (key-tar) and Matt (drums) joined up with Dana Swanson (vocals) and Travis Hallenbeck (Street Fighter II Sound Test)  to form The Centroid.  We played for about eight minutes at this open-mic event, with mixed success.  Most of the audience was driven away, but we enjoyed ourselves, especially for the first few minutes.  Some recordings of The Centroid may be available at ArchaeologyFrontier.org.

Friday, March 7 2003 (The Mix-Up Show): The Sorry Sods joined nine other performers at Matthew, Matthew, Missy, and Ryan's house; each group performed a song by a different artist in the "homemade junction scene."  The other performers were Patrick, Green Uvula, Crunchifus, Matthew's Ghost, Orchid Pool, Travis & Julie, Eshniner Forest, Natural Bridges and Sugar Cookie.  Matt and I did "Magma!" by Eshniner Forest.

The Boulevard House, March 28 2003 (Homemade Junction Live II): Following the format of Homemade Junction Live I (see above), we held a musical party at our Athens area residence (also home to our friend Lotus and Val), bringing together sixteen bands/artists of various styles and inclinations.  Each played a song, and a good time was had by all.  We believe about 40 people were at the party at any given time.  The Sorry Sods performed "Goodbye Sand Castle," backed up by a boom box which had the drums and bass on it.  For more info on this show, or to check out the now-available live CD, click here!

Links:

Athens Music

Archaeology Frontier: A clearinghouse of exciting information as well as pictures and recordings - the unofficial internet touchstone for fans and members of the living-room music community known alternately as "goof rock," "nerd core," "The Homemade Junction scene," and still other labels.

Doctor Casino: Addison's other musical project(s).

Heather Lynn: This member of dynamic dance-music duo The Capricorns (click for that band's website) is an occasional resident of Athens and a relentlessly creative individual.  Her music is only one aspect of her larger body of work, which includes writing and art.

Flagpole: Athens's leading alternative print newsweekly.  In addition to coverage of local politics and other happenings, the paper always publishes gobs of information on upcoming shows (at least ones taking place at major downtown venues) and other music news of interest to Athenians.

Geoff Reacher: Mysterious, nomadic music-maker whose twangy, pseudo-electronic country stylings have turned on millions who might have otherwise become fans of "Beercan" era Beck.

Music-Making Stuff

CoolEdit: An indispensible sound-editing program good for all your basic recording needs - volume edits, cutting and pasting, echo/reverb, noise reduction, and a few goofy things like flanging and telephone noise generation.  The free version of this is crippled so that you can only use two different tools at a time - that is, when you start the program each time, it lets you choose what you want to be able to do this time.  Even with this handicap, I've been able to have a blast with CoolEdit for the last five years or so.

Hammerhead Rhythm Station: This free and fun-to-use software drum machine propels a number of our studio recorded songs and is recommended to anybody interested in creating music on their own.

Sonic Foundry ACID: An exceedingly user-friendly graphically-based tracker program that lets you assemble and overlay essentially infinite tracks.  It's geared towards electronic music, so the basic structure works around looping samples.  I really don't know what I'd do without it - combined with CoolEdit for recording the samples themselves from keyboard, guitar, or microphone, and Hammerhead for generating backing beats (or even just a metronome to work from), ACID is a shockingly powerful tool for throwing together songs at home.

Above: The band rocks out in Boggs Hall, 4th floor, our dormitory home from Fall 2000 to Spring 2002 (with a summer break somewhere in between).  Matt is playing the Danelectro (unplugged), and Addison is singing and playing the coconut.  Pictures by one of our buddies down the hall, either Mattie or Miguel.

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