Condo Fucks City Rockers

Copyright © 2019 Karl Ward

Writing notes

I’ve never been to Jamaica. I’ve barely been to Connecticut. But I do have mad experience with being a broke kid who lived for music and wanted to get the hell out of my situation. “Feel no way by the chaos proper.” You have to.

This was the third song I finished. The music came together quickly, and most of the lyrics too, except for the second verse that I wrote a few weeks later on a bus stuck in traffic on the Garden State Parkway. I’ve been interested in Jamaican music for half my life now, but I really haven’t done much music that shows that influence. Anyway, I read Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang in grad school and that was the jumping off point for this song, in particular that moment when Jamaican music and culture took its place in New York and environs alongside rock and punk and R&B. Jonny Greenwood is the Controller is such a great collection that I picked up around the time the Condo Fucks became a real thing. I don’t think I heard the Jamaican term “controller” until that compilation, or at least I didn’t know what it meant. It’s entirely possible that I don’t know what it means now.

Recording notes

Again, love that guitar harmony, just can’t get enough.
  • Rhythm and lead guitars: Les Paul “Elle” -> Sovtek MIG-50 with Marshall JTMC12 cabinet
  • Bass: Jazz Bass -> Electro-Harmonix Black Finger -> Sovtek MIG-50 with Marshall JTMC12
  • Drums: Ludwig Club Date

Release Info