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Megadead

by Benjamin Shaw

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alwbsok
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alwbsok Probably my favourite Benjamin Shaw album. It certainly feels like his most optimistic and most forgiving. Benjamin Shaw reaches into the muck and pulls out kernels of exquisite, hopeful beauty, both emotionally and musically. Favorite track: hole.
Mikichan
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Mikichan these songs speaks to me. can't stop playing them, also love the experimental bits added on top of Ben's singing and playing, this great record deserves to be out there, seriously. Favorite track: hole.
jon & liam
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jon & liam "He may be singing about hating his job, about going nowhere fast, but in doing so colours these things with meaning. To create art is to communicate, and as such the songs represent the antithesis to their own concerns, the simulated happiness and artificial connection punctured through their ironic presence" - varioussmallflames.co.uk/2018/09/07/benjamin-shaw-megadead/
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1.
2.
It’s okay to go home
3.
Melanomates 05:50
Got a head full of hobos A skinful of blind An eyeful of broken And you on my mind Got a head full of tuna A bed full of brine Fold away feelings and you on my mind Ain't no briefcase I be holding It be pretty long Ain't no sad face I be showing It's a just gone wrong I gotta head butt Gotta golf club Gonna, gonna smash this whole place up Got a mouth full of thunder A head full of rain A desk by the fire escape And you on my brain Ain't no shoulder I be breaking It be only spine Ain't a doughy midsection It be pretty fine
4.
PUSH IT DOWN 04:59
I got things to talk about I got hell to pay Stupid boring piece of shit Won’t just go away So push it down Turn up that frown upside-down I got bones to pick with you Nothing feels ok Stupid boring, shut your mouth Won’t just go away Just push it down, push it down Turn that frown upside-down I got smarts better than this And we similar goals Let’s shoot our dads into the sun And pray it fills a hole Just push it, push it down Turn that frown upside-down Just push it down, push it down Nothing to worry about
5.
Terrible Feelings! (free) 03:48
Hey apocalypse, it's nice to know you still be trying To lift me by the hips And make believe like I be flying away, you're all terrible people, with terrible clothes, go away but I don't care, I got no dog in the race So do me a solid, do me again and again terrible feelings but I got nothing to say Aw hey its you, I don't forget a face Naw I'll do it, it's a piece of cake ah've nothing to hide, I just wanna go home today oh it'll blow over, everyone makes mistakes
6.
This is stupid.
7.
I bring nothing to the table It's nothing to worry about yeah I got friends mind your own business I'm laughing all of the time You remind me of my father But I wish that you were my dad You'd take me fishing, up on the river And run at the first sign of sadness So crawl out the window and down to the street And swear you weren't going to leave A pull on your hair and up to your feet And push through your chest with a bread knife all this blue on my teeth cos i never get to see you All of these telescopes focused on land And I be just focused on me And all of your friends and family hope you're keeping ok But I don't care, Jamie
8.
Ain't a thing can touch me today ain't a plan that I cannot break got a heavy head of hollow A belly full of grey A big bowl of sadness It's a brand new day Ain't no bad will happen today Ain't no feeling I cannot shake Just forget it, doesn't matter You missed it anyway Low level waster It’s a brand new day Ain't nothing that I cannot do Ain't no hole that I cannot grave No good, could be better I thought you'd gone away Goodbye forever It's a brand new day
9.
hole 05:12
So i dig me a hole And i fill it with thinking Just give me something to hold Or something worth drinking While I lay down inside And drive a car through my kidneys Cos there’s nothing to do So fuck it all, who’s with me There’s a hole in my head with a hole lot of faeces And I pray you blow up and spray the whole world with TVs For I done you no good And you not much better I got half a mind To sleep forever So I dig me a hole And I fill it with thinking But the wind takes my hat And I blame it on people

about

Previous Press for Benjamin Shaw:
"A piece of work that could stand the test of time...The solitude is palpable." - Gold Flake Paint

"It’s a reminder that some of the most powerful emotions can bloom from the simplest of raw moments." - Drowned in Sound

"You wouldn't want everyone (or anyone else) to sound to like Benjamin Shaw but I'm delighted someone does." - The Line Of Best Fit

"Benjamin Shaw is an outcast, a loner, a maverick and a freak. All of these are compliments." - CLASH Music

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"Megadead is the first Benjamin Shaw album on Audio Antihero Records since 2014's "Goodbye, Cagoule World" (bnjmnshw.bandcamp.com/album/goodbye-cagoule-world). It's co-released with Kirigirisu Recordings. Kirigirisu is a small Japanese label founded by Neil Debnam of Broken Shoulder and Fighting Kites, he also plays guitar on this record.

I've been working with Ben for a very long time. There's a lot about releasing records that I just don't enjoy at all anymore. But there's something about working with Ben that still feels special. It's good to feel that you are working on something that's truly a little different. Better still to do this with someone you care about. Someone who at this point has put together a pretty amazing catalogue of gorgeously strange albums.

This is a beautiful album. Electric and eclectic, filled with the beauty and brutality of Shaw's lyricism and a swirling world of musical layers, loops, madness and melody. Both fractured and whole. I don't know if you'll like it but I hope you will.

Megadead is many things, including a collaboration between three friends who met in a warehouse in London and are now spread out across the earth in Melbourne, Tokyo and New York. It makes me feel closer to my friends and to my past, which at 31 is all you can really ask for." - Jamie, Audio Antihero Records

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"Hi, my name is Ben and I have made a new album called 'Megadead'. I've done a few albums over the years, this one being the 7th full one, I think. I've been pretty proud of them all but I reckon I peaked somewhere around 2012 (didn't we all). Luckily for me, it was exactly around the time I also peaked in shame and anxiety about doing any kind of art at all. Especially music... A white male singer-songwriter going under his own name? yikes.

So what's changed? I'm still doing this shit as I hurtle through my 30s. Goodbye pension, goodbye family, goodbye career. What’s your point, Ben?

The truth is, making up stupid songs and recording them in my bedroom is the only thing that gets me through each day. Going to my shitty job is rubbish. Sitting with a keyboard and a laptop on my bed and losing hours to music is magical.

I'm yet to produce anything that hasn't involved my usual tropes of 'i hate my job!’ and ‘let's run away!’ but my other half said this album is more honest than previous efforts. More open. I dunno, but I’m going to do more. Be it under my own douchebag-singer-songwriter name or something else. It’s embarrassing, but I’ve got nothing else to do." - Benjamin Shaw

credits

released August 31, 2018

Co-Released with Kirigirisu Recordings (Japan) - kirigirisurecordings.bandcamp.com

Guitar on tracks 1, 4 and 8 by Neil Debnam (Fighting Kites / Broken Shoulder)

The "Megadead" album was premiered on The Alternative - www.getalternative.com/album-premiere-benjamin-shaw-megadead

"Terrible Feelings!" was premiered on Atwood Magazine - atwoodmagazine.com/bstf-benjamin-shaw-terrible-feelings

"A Brand New Day" was premiered on Dimestore Saints - dimestoresaints.blog/2018/08/23/premiere-benjamin-shaw

"Megadead" Track-By-Track commentary by Benjamin Shaw on Various Small Flames - varioussmallflames.co.uk/2018/09/19/benjamin-shaw-megadead-track-by-track-guide

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Benjamin Shaw Melbourne, Australia

Canada's favourite son. Saddest of the chumps. "Megadead" out now on Audio Antihero & Kirigirisu Recordings

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