Gas Hound Provides Primordial Ride into the Heart of Atlanta’s Headhunting Underbelly
by Scott “Belly Up” Belzer
Tom Waits. Billy Bob Thornton. Lauren Bacall. Will Patton. Carol Channing. Stockard Channing! …William Shatner…?
These are all performers who can take command of the English language. Whether it’s with a poem, monologue, sonnet or spoken word piece, there’s a presence with each passing word. The more ominous, dreamy, or cinematic the music plays over it, the better!
But what if I told you one of Atlanta’s own artists has equal command? What if I said the music, vision, and general ethos can come from one person, made greater with an artistic partnership? What if you discovered the beatnick-guru-gargantuan-giga-spirit is alive and well in our fair city?
Enter Ben Davidow.
When Ben hasn’t been shredding in The Buzzards of Fuzz or lending his talents to Phantom Electric, Mammabear and Black Cat Rising, you can find his self-expression in poetry projects like Baghdad Battery Acid. On a lucky day, these projects coalesce into one.
Davidow’s most recently tinkered-with project, Gas Hound, is celebrating spoken word and poetry as part of an upcoming single, “The Wind & The Rain / Street Admiral / A True Warrior”. Davidow partnered with Joseph Faul (Cicada Rhythm, The Titos), who helmed the project as the main guitarist, executive producer, composer and recording engineer – his first foray into such an arena.
Faul assembled an impressive group of local and national musicians, including Paul Stevens (Bizner, Moloq, Slow Parade), bassist Jared Pepper (Lily & The Tigers, Rose Hotel), assistant producer and mixing engineer Tony Aparo (Improvement Movement), and Chicago’s own famed mastering engineer for Sub Pop, Matador Records, Anti-, and many more, Greg Obis.
Give your ears a gander below:
Self-described as “melodically driven lyrical elements that range between spoken word poetry, swooning Pink Floyd-esque psychedelic harmonic pads and hard-hitting, Shellac-inspired lead vocals,” by way of “supergroup of local and national musicians from a range of dynamic genres… that pulses and pulls between astral bliss and acrid agony,” it’s fair to say this is one fanciful trip to the sonic plane.
If you find that title or description a little confusing, no worries, we’ll be going through this step-by-step, movement by movement, and beat by beat. Let’s get to it, kitty cats.
- Rabbits and Fawns
We can hear acoustic guitar. Davidow’s voice is layered on top, concocting a woodland scene enveloped in wind. There’s no urgency to his voice; all is bliss, and all seems to be well. Much like nature undisturbed, Davidow’s voice is completely copacetic. His descriptors are calming and peaceful:
The wind and the rain
Have carved their language into the Earth
In all languages known
And yet the context is disarming: Davidow is describing how our modern language, made up of SUVs, vehicles, hustle and bustle, is at odds with this equilibrium. In fact, it’s nothing more than a “foreign moan.” The only advice he—or anyone else, really—can offer is to simply unplug.
- Do or Do Not
After a brief interlude, Davidow comes back with more urgency. His language has evolved to more panicked diction. His tone is much more anxious and angrier, swelling with every word shouted.
Make or break
Hide from the world
Place your head in the mouth of the wolf
The hand that feeds is bleeding us dry
This section wouldn’t be out of place on a Fugazi record. The guitars attack bluntly with distortion. The lyrics are straightforward and abrasive in the best way possible. This, too, gives way to a more melodic bridge where Davidow again insists, “We must unplug to reconnect,” amid pleasant vocalizations. This process repeats before giving way to the final interlude.
- A Moment of Reflection
The final minute of this track is mostly psychedelia. Guitar and vocals ring out into perpetual echo. Drums seem to clang along more out of necessity than desire. In many ways, it mirrors our reality, man. The world spins along whether we want it to or not. Whether we unplug or remain umbilically connected to the wrongness of the world. Make or break, baby.
Picture the vast vacuum of space littered with starshine. A view of the open plains amid a bright, blossiming Spring day. The eternity of the sky while lying down in a midnight meadow. These are all finely conjured by Davidow and Faul as the track comes to a conclusion.
A true warrior fights himself
He knows that when he raises the sword
He brings it down on his own head
He kills with compassion, the thought to kill
He buries it in his heart where it will one day flower
Where one day it will become the sun
Where one day we will become one
If you’re not floored or at least taken aback by the entire song, I wonder what’s going on in your soul.
You can catch Gas Hound & Co. performing the single live at Boggs Social & Supply on July 17, 2026, alongside ANTHMZ, Anastasia Elliot and Grounds Crew. Buy tickets today!