| God Is My Co-Pilot | |
| Landscape: | Yes |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | New York City, New York |
| Genre: | Queercore, experimental rock, noise rock, no wave |
| Years Active: | 1991–present |
| Associated Acts: | John Zorn, Melt Banana |
| Label: | Outpunk, Knitting Factory, Avant, Atavistic, Shrimper |
| Current Members: | Craig Flanagin, Sharon Topper, Normandy Sherwood, Jason Blackkat, Fredrik Haake, Daria Klotz, Kevin Shea, Jer Reid |
God Is My Co-Pilot (often abbreviated as GodCo) is a no wave queercore band from New York City formed in 1991. The two primary members throughout the 90s were the openly queer couple of vocalist Sharon Topper and guitarist Craig Flanagin. The last recordings with Topper were made in 1998 (though the group continued to perform occasionally until 2012).
There was no further activity until 2018 when the band released a demo on both cassette and Bandcamp, began playing frequent shows in NYC, and toured the UK. The current line-up consists of Flanagin playing guitar, Normandy Sherwood (of the National Theater of the United States of America) on vocals & electronics, long-standing members Jason Blackkat on bass, Jer Reid on guitar, and Fredrik Haake on drums, with new members Hajnal Pivnick on violin, and Kevin Shea on drums.
The group has been recording new music since 2018; both a single and an album drawn from these recordings, which include contributions from cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, drummer Genny Slag, and guitarist Mark Jickling, are slated for release in 2022.
God Is My Co-Pilot is known for being prolific (see discography below). All of their material has been released on independent record labels or self-released. Their own self-run label The Making Of Americans (named after the novel of the same name by Gertrude Stein) released music by Jad Fair, Cat Power, Dairy Queen Empire, Dawson, and The Scissor Girls among others.
Former members of God Is My Co-Pilot include keyboardist Anthony Coleman, vocalist/bassist Fly; bassists James Garrison, Alex Klein, Daria Grace and Ann Rupel; cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm; and drummers Dan Brown, Michael Evans, and Siobhan Duffy.
The group is often joined by guest musicians. These have included Frank London, Kenny Wollesen, Sandy Ewen, Margaret Fiedler McGinnis, Elliott Sharp, Marion Coutts, Jim Sauter, Catherine Jauniaux, Gen Ken Montgomery, Andy Haas, John Zorn and Jad Fair.
The band's lyrics frequently address sexuality and gender. The band states, in their song, "We Signify, "...We're co-opting rock, the language of sexism, to address gender identity on its own terms of complexity...." They occasionally sing in languages other than English: some of their output has been in French, Quebecois, Cajun, Swabian, Yiddish, German, Finnish, Turkish, among others. Their sound has been described as experimental, noise rock, hardcore punk and avant jazz. Stay Free zine said of the music, "We hear a new sound, 'free punk' we'll call it."[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]