GOLD WOOD

- EPK -

I Stay Mellow (Tsunami Remix) [C]

PRESS

GW IV: Upside Down the Arm of a Star | The End War Album

Following up their impressive earlier works “In Gold Wood”, “Godeus”, and “Stereo Monoxide Ride”, L.A.-based multimedia collective/audio strikeforce GOLD WOOD return with another compelling batch of next level experimental post punk rock. A bewildering landscape of hallucinatory distortion, mesmeric basslines, rat-a-tat 808 beats, and phantasmagorical vocals. Upside Down the Arm of a Star | The End War Album (TEWA) is a voyage into the future of music, where simple genres cease to exist and anything goes…and sounds DOPE.   -Brolin Winning (XLR8R,UGSMAG)

Band Info

Gold Wood, the audio arm of 3 artists

GOLD WOOD is a musical group comprised of 3 artists: CIA, Mars, and urbanyetti.

Label: Self-Released / Fuck It! UP Records ©2015 / Heart To Live Records <3-2-Live> ©2024 / Reckless Records ©2025

Genre: Underground Polyelectronic Rock / Experimental Electronic Post Punk

Location: Los Angeles, CA

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Inspired by punk, funk, dub, hip hop, psychedelic, indie, electronic, and rock forms in music, GOLD WOOD forges a massive rhythmic sound from all these mega influences in effect.

GOLD WOOD albums are described as beat-induced eclectic soundscapes where the common denominator between tracks is the grit and pow! flowing through each original track. Harmonic electric polyphonism.

GOLD WOOD music can be categorized under the subgenre of Experimental Electronic Post Punk, where GW music shares in as much with EEP Punk music genre the freedom and complexity of a multi-genre influenced sound. For this reason, GOLD WOOD dubbed their sound “Underground Polyelectronic Rock”, for the heavy underground sound influence. The artists compose all-original music with the use of pounding electronic beats, dense bass rifts, sonically distorted guitars, and lyrically mesmerizing vocals. 

The lyrics are positive message forward with a strong cadence for delivering intense thought-provoking verses. The melodic sing-along story-telling styles mixed with metered rhythmic and dramatic structures, are inspired by street art, now-politics, slam poetry and other conscience street lyricisms, where the positive messages are meant to inspire intrinsic conscience-awareness and optimistic perception. Though the message is often hidden and playfully cryptic, the message is there for the listener to interpret from the song titles and verses all put together.

For instance, in GOLD WOOD’s polythetic referential track Bloodbath, the lyrics are written in first person story-telling form, where it is upfront about the protagonist, “Call me Ishmael”, idiomatically referencing the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab of the whaling ship Pequod, being ready to “lay waste to the place, I’m armed, can’t control my spirit, deep down in a well, the blast, the boom, the gloom of another hungry ghost” –perhaps referring to being inside the mind of a mad killer.

Then, at the end of the song the lyrics switch circumference and exclaim, “act like a loser, think like a bot, wanna go rock bruises, wanna talk the fuckin talk, believe in what you see, believe in what you hear, mutter in devices, drink a fancy beer, floating on wings of metal, going door to door, spreading their nightmare, taking all the world, taking all the good things, throw them all away, they’ll even try and take you if you get in their way…it’s murdah, murdhah!”, critically changing the perspective of a bloodbath from being an act of killing, to one of gentrification, globalization, and even developmentalization, industrialization, and utilitarianism ...for the sake of money and the insatiable greed for wealth, “taking all the good things, throw them all away.” In this sense, the bloodbath is actually performed by those who kill the poor, the unrepresented, the easy targets thereby the establishment taking everyone’s stuff, their land, their lives. The real bloodbath here is the killing of the soul, forcing everyone to think and act like a bot, all for the sake of making money. We’re all for sale.

Other tracks are equally compelling, and begging the listener to listen. Verses such as, “I Stay Mellow …through thick and thin, through ice and snow, through storm and sorrow,” tell a prophetic realization of keeping cool when things get heated. Or on the track, First Wall, “The leaders mislead us, they try and delete us,” showing a definite rebellion of angst towards being ignored and pushed aside by the establishment. And in Rocker’s Delight, “the difference in seeing, is the difference in being,” says it all, followed by “misperception leads to deception, causes confusion and pain” is systemically pointing out the convoluted downward spiral in current trends and to those leading these trends existing in a state of confusion, causing pain to the world. Shadow Drone articulates “Let it go!”, and in Show Me What You Got the irrefutable realization of “Life is but a dream, Life is but a screen, Life ain’t what it seems”. And in Fistful of Hollers, “Never fake it ‘til I make it, always feel it ‘til I real it, Tathagata Bodhisattva, Supreme Being it” reminds us all to be who we are, not to be afraid of those supposedly in control because in reality …no one’s in control. In the end, there’s only what is seen of the mind itself.

On the rhythmic scale, GOLD WOOD beats are through the roof. Where in some genres of music, beats are pushed to the back so other instruments may push forward and become more pronounced such as vocals and lead guitars, here GW keeps the beat and percussion upfront in-line with all other instruments. The result, is a realization of a rhythm section not only producing massive beats, also creating its own narrative; –one very much heart-pounding, soul-grabbing, and mind-activating. Put your headphones on, crank the hi-fi, and sit on your drum throne. Now imagine high hats, cymbals, snares, toms, kick drums, and sticks in hand …you’re the drummer in the band… hitting every beat with metered precision.

Guitars are soaring high, high above, reaching further still into the stratosphere. And right before these notes float too far into space, the grounding pounding bass rifts come in. Keeping your feet solidly on the earth. And before you know it, you find yourself moving and grooving and at the same time floating and soaring. How is this possible, you say? How can one soar, float, and stay grounded all at the same time?

Here is where the magic of GOLD WOOD unfolds in the perfect combination and harmonic melody, meter, and rhyme. The essence of time then transforms. It joins. It elevates. The experience brings you somewhere familiar, somewhere new, somewhere good.

The band’s name is poetically borrowed from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s inimitable NYC street performance in the movie, Downtown 81, where the imminent famous artist is filmed spray-painting his defiant message on the side of a Cadillac with the phrase “GOLDWOOD”. According to the film’s producer, Maripol, she tells GW band member Mars$$$ during their conversation at Delicious Pizza in Los Angeles, that the use of “GOLD WOOD” is Basquiat’s poetic street lyricism, his cipher and play-on-words for “Money”, as in dollar bills that are made from paper that comes from trees (WOOD) then given value by society and thereby this paper is now turned into money (GOLD).

The band is currently celebrating the release of their fourth independently produced album: GOLD WOOD IV - Upside Down the Arm of a Star | The End War Album.

Released as two albums in one, GWIV - UDTAOAS/TEWA is the band’s culmination of various studio recording works thus far, remastered, remixed, and reimagined as one positive thought-provoking theme: ––being here on this Earth now without the need for killing each other or warring to survive. Unity and harmony will prove ultimately more successful. End War NOW!

“Upside Down the Arm of a Star” means to see the world from a different perspective. A star is a beacon of hope — a shining light that guides the way. It's a symbol of positivity, happiness or renewal. Or at least, a star should exist to be a symbol of positivity …though in this current world, too many strive to make life almost if not completely impossible to enjoy, even in its most powerful mechanisms as simple and complicated of a thing such as of a star. This is where GOLD WOOD intends to unite. In this world, too many cause confusion and pain, making it difficult for others to stand with feet firmly on the ground. Essentially, flipping us all to feel ass-up and head on the ground. To be upside down means to be confused; muddled; topsy-turvy, in an upside-down world. By making yourself upside down in an upside-down world, is to flip your perspective positively. Turn it right-side UP!

Truly independent artists, currently GOLD WOOD operates free of any record label and have FULL control of the creative process and all of the original content.

Stay Mellow,
GOLD WOOD

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Front Brigade: CIA

Secondary Artillery: Mars $$$ and urbanyetti

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 ingoldwood@gmail.com

Albums

GW IV: Upside Down the Arm of a Star | The End War Album

Official Release Date: May 2024 / October 2024

GW III: Stereo Monoxide Ride

Official Release Date: April 2018

GW II: GODEUS

Official Release Date: May 2016

GW I: In Gold Wood

Official Release Date: February 2015

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