I have been waiting to do this entry for awhile since this band wrote some great songs, and there's a lot of unreleased material to check out.
Labels are a funny thing. We always feel the need to compartmentalize things into neat boxes, most of which don't even exist. It's definitely that way with music. Allegedly, the band Mineral didn't even know that they were an emo band until someone told them that they were and that they should check out Sunny Day Real Estate. I'm not sure how true that is, but that's the so-called story. Over on the Long Island Music Scene wiki my old band The Cotton Weary is listed as a post-emo indie band. Post-Emo Indie? I didn't even know that there was a post-emo genre. I appreciate what the people over there are doing, but you guys made that up, right? In any case, I'd be as guilty of categorizing bands as well, because when I listen to Godot now all I hear is an emo band, but at the time they were active I don't know if they fit that categorization, knew or even cared what emo was.
Godot was started around 1997 by Chris Klein on guitar and vocals, Michael Conklin on bass and Don Eschenauer (Edit - Thanks to Chris Klein) on drums. They put out a demo, a 4 song CD and that was it. Chris's voice is definitely comparable to emo bands of the time like Mineral, and there are shades of Texas is the Reason, Lazycain and Left at Yale that I hear in their stuff. But the songwriting is really strong and it's a shame that they just didn't gel with what was happening in 1998 since they preferred melody over mosh parts, beats instead of breakdowns. The guitars alternate from strummed to chiming, the basslines are simple yet effective. When you listen to them now, you'll probably wonder why you never heard of them and question if they really were from LI. They were.
I'm not even sure how I met Mike Conklin. One of us responded to the phone (or BEEPER) number on one of our respective flyers to try and set up some shows. I went to check them out at a place by Hofstra (my old alma matter) called Screwy Louie's. Yes, Screwy Louie's. Only drunk college kids, or people who want to make money off of drunk college kids would name their establishment Screwy Louie's. They were playing with another little-known and also equally awesome band called Varistor. The guys played a great set, I grabbed their CD and we were on the way to becoming friends. I know that with the exception of Mike Satzinger, the rest of my band at the time (The Cotton Weary) did not get what Godot were doing. They definitely didn't see it as 'emo', which comes back around to trying to squeeze everyone into the same box.
Godot played a show with The Cotton Weary, Knox Overstreet and a metal band called Elevation at the Roadhouse in Ronkonkoma. After that, Conklin and I had a falling out and I lost track of them. Looking back, I'm not entirely sure what the argument was about but having a few years of seasoning since that time I can honestly say whatever it was probably shouldn't have ended our friendship or our bands playing together. They broke up a year or so later and Conklin went on to work for several different magazines, while Chris Klein joined the much noisier The Quick Fix (later The Quick Fix Kills) and later The Special Moves.
In these links you'll find Godot's 4 Song CD and several demos that were to comprise a full length that never materialized. I'd like to thank Chris Klein for sending me this stuff because as he said himself of the demos, no one outside of themselves and their girlfriends has heard this music. And this is really great stuff. "Sketchy History" and "E-mail Song" are some of the strongest tunes that they put together. The first demo is not included in the links because no one in the band even has a copy of it - but if there is anyone out there that does have a copy, be sure to let me know. I urge you guys to check this out.
Godot - Self-Titled CD:
http://www.mediafire.com/?66e3vld3mkwp7i0
Godot - Unreleased Demos:
http://www.mediafire.com/?117969nms8hwel1
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