The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions inteded to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tim Otis of High Noon Kahuna

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Make sounds with the intention of accentuating, enhancing, or supporting other sounds around me. It all happened very organically. In high school I played guitar… a lot. Then I became very interested in drumming and started jamming on drums about 5 years later. It was a very organic transition from drumming by myself, to free-form jamming (mostly with Matt LeGrow and our brothers), then those free-form jams evolved into Admiral Browning.

About nine years ago I got back into guitar big time. Revisiting old riffs I had, learning new stuff. Exploring tones, pedals, amps, different pickups and stuff like that. Started jamming on guitar with a neighbor who drummed, shortly Paul joined us on Wednesday nights to jam. It was also very organic, we never “constructed” a song as much as we honed free-form jams into songs.

Describe your first musical memory.

My zeroth musical memory is piano lessons as a young kid, I remember not liking my piano teacher at all. Hahah! Beyond that, mom and dad played guitar, bass, banjo, piano and sang at church, so I had early access to instruments, PA systems and microphones. I have several memories of playing with this stuff, learning about it, and singing in musicals as a young person in church. However my favorite thing to do in those days was to hear Rick Dees weekly top forty. I would rush to the radio on Sunday nights when it
aired. It was the highlight of my week as a young kid. Not only tracking where my favorite artists were on the charts (Duran Duran) but I was equally fascinated by some of the side stories Rick would share when introducing a song or band.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

This is a recent one! Our latest High Noon Kahuna recording with Kevin Bernstein at Developing Nations! We went in with about 80% of the songs fully-baked, done, and dusted. We had sketches and rough drafts of the other 20 percent with enough time booked to fully explore and experiment in the studio. It was liberating and wonderful! Out of this freedom we created what I think is one of the coolest tracks on the new album, “Tumbleweed Nightmare.”

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Drumming showed me my limits were mental. When I was at my physical limit, the riffs and music drove me to push past those limits. I can run or workout with weights or kickbox or kayak or ride uphill on a bike, but nothing on earth pushes me to my limit and enables me to break past my limits like drumming and more importantly, being a collaborator in the musical sounds of the band.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Betterment! With any form of art, it starts small, and sometimes it starts bad. As we learn and grow while practicing, our art becomes better. Every time we practice our art is a chance to improve.

How do you define success?

Success, to me, is being happy with yourself, your surroundings, the people in your life, and your work. Society always dangles the carrot in front of us, there will always be something we don’t have. Being motivated and driven enough to keep working hard every single day and on days when the motivation isn’t there, having resiliency to push through the items that need doing, that’s how I’m able to feel successful at the end of the day.

As far as a band setting goes, there are thousands of micro-to-macro successes. Celebrating each one of those can manifest more. Things like, inventing a new part for a song, having a good practice jam, playing a fun show, a successful recording session. Each of these are rewarding and should be seen as successes.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The bathroom at the Springwater Supper Club & Lounge in Nashville Tennessee. Love that place, many of my good friends have worked there and booked shows there. Have played several amazing shows there and attended some awesome parties and shows there. But, wow that bathroom was bad! All the things you’d expect from a punk-rock bathroom. Few rival it, however the bathroom at the Meatlocker in Montclair New Jersey and the bathroom at the Milestone in Charlotte North Carolina were contenders.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I think everyone who is a true music fan/nerd has developing tastes. I’m thankful that I’ve never reached the end of my musical journey as a fan of music. I’m also thankful for my friends over the years who have showed me new music. As my tastes and preferences evolve I’m thankful that new ideas emerge regularly that challenge my own musical abilities and push me beyond my limits.

As far as non-musical creations, I’ve been getting back into drawing, lettering and calligraphy. There are a few ideas here that I’m working on creating.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Expression. Art allows us to convey our attitudes and emotions on different levels. Art can be beautiful, art can be brutal, art can be beautifully brutal or brutally beautiful. I’m thankful for the ability to express these emotions in ways that resonate in ways beyond just talking about them.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I’ve been watching every werewolf movie I can find since last Halloween, there are roughly 70 on my list. I look forward to seeing them all. (Suggestions and recommendations welcome!) Some upcoming tattoo work I’m getting. Spending some fun summer time with my wife, hounds, and mother nature.

https://linktr.ee/highnoonkahuna
https://highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/highnoonkahuna/
https://www.facebook.com/HighNoonKahuna/

https://linktr.ee/crucial_blast
http://www.crucialblast.bandcamp.com
http://www.crucialblast.net
http://www.facebook.com/CrucialBlast
https://www.instagram.com/crucial_blast/

High Noon Kahuna, This Place is Haunted (2024)

Please know that I’m sincere when I tell you High Noon Kahuna signing to Crucial Blast for their now-announced second long-player, This Place is Haunted, is heartwarming. The label has been supporting the weirder end of underground weird for 25 years now, and in their snagging High Noon Kahuna — whose 2022 debut, Killing Spree (review here), drew together seemingly disparate ends within heavy rock, black metal, surf, jazz and doom — I’m reminded of their long history with noisy bands who didn’t quite fit a mold otherwise, be it Jumbo’s Killcrane or Totimoshi around the turn of the century, Across Tundras, Weedeater, the split between Floor and their offshoot Dove, etc., or bands like Cultic and Gnaw Their Tongues in more recent years. Not every imprint, new or old, has a broad enough background to get what a band like High Noon Kahuna are going for.

Based in Frederick, Maryland, High Noon Kahuna will indeed be at Maryland Doom Fest 2024 this June (info here) for their first appearance, and a May 17 release means This Place is Haunted will be out before they even get there. They’re playing live in the meantime, of course. The other night they were in Martinsburg, West Virginia, for a set that was filmed (credit to Phebography, I think?) that you can watch in its entirety at the bottom of this post.

I’ll hope to have more to come closer to the release, but here’s what’s out there now from socials:

HIGH NOON KAHUNA This Place Is Haunted CD / CS / DL (VINYL TBA) – OUT MAY 17, 2024

Crucial Blast is stoked to announce that we are joining forces with longtime friends HIGH NOON KAHUNA on the release of their second album, This Place Is Haunted.

Harder, darker, but also brimming with haunting melody, the Maryland band features former members of Internal Void, Vox Populi and Admiral Browning, executing an incredibly infectious mix of classic noise rock and psychedelic crunch. The twelve songs on Haunted are on a whole new level from the band; this rumbling riff-beast brilliantly evokes everything from pummeling Am Rep abrasion, soaring Hawkwindian space rock, haunting post-punk, Dick Dale-on-acid licks, doses of massive doom-laden crush, and even wisps of classic Morricone moodiness and some hammering QOTSA-esque groove.

Easily one of the most unique bands ever to emerge from the DC/MD area, KAHUNA is weirder, heavier, and catchier than ever before, and C-BLAST is incredibly excited to bring this banger to your ears.

This Place Is Haunted will be released May 17th, 2024.

Stay tuned for the first single from the album, coming in early March!

High Noon Kahuna is:
Tim Otis: guitar (Admiral Browning)
Brian Goad: Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys)
Paul Cogle: Bass VI and Vocals (Black Blizzard)

https://linktr.ee/highnoonkahuna
https://highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/highnoonkahuna/
https://www.facebook.com/HighNoonKahuna/

https://linktr.ee/crucial_blast
http://www.crucialblast.bandcamp.com
http://www.crucialblast.net
http://www.facebook.com/CrucialBlast
https://www.instagram.com/crucial_blast/

High Noon Kahuna, Live in Martinsburg, WV, March 2, 2024

Kind of a lower-key album announcement happening here as Maryland doom standard-bearers Spiral Grave unveil a video for “The Death of Ronnie M.” — as opposed to the death of Ronnie J. D., which I’m still not over — and send first word of the impending Ill Repute as a follow-up to the four-piece’s Argonauta-backed 2021 debut, Legacy of the Anointed (review here). That release was both proof-of-concept and a statement of intent for the band that pulled together vocalist “Screaming Mad Dee” Calhoun, bassist Louis “Iron Lou” Strachan and drummer Jason “Mot” Waldmann from the final incarnation of Iron Man and teamed them with guitarist Willy Rivera, formerly of the wildly underrated (and just plain wild) sludge metal experimentalists Lord. No solid date yet for Ill Repute, but ‘2024’ is easy enough to believe.

I don’t know if Ronnie M.’s is a true case of child abuse and you’ll pardon me if I skip Googling it to find out. In any case, Calhoun (a published author multiple times over) is no stranger to narrative in songwriting between Spiral Grave and his solo work, and “The Death of Ronnie M.” hits sharp with intensity in its low-end-shove midsection to coincide with the traditional metal reach of the vocals, and it’s plain to hear the band are pushing themselves. I haven’t heard Ill Repute or anything, and I can’t even play clever and drop some hint as to when it’ll be out, but a new track isn’t nothing to go on in advance of a familiar ‘more to come’ as they ramp up for the release.

Gets in, lands hard, gets out. Makes it easy to look forward to the record:

SPIRAL GRAVE, the US doom metal band consisting of members from Iron Man and Lord, has released a new official music video for ‘The Death of Ronnie M.’.

The first single from Ill Repute, “The Death of Ronnie M,” is quite simply about murdering a pedophile. The live footage from the video was shot at Another Round in Richmond VA on September 30, 2023.

Spiral Grave formed in late 2018 following the demise of two legendary mid-Atlantic bands, Iron Man and Lord. The band quickly hit the live circuit and recorded their debut album, Legacy of the Anointed (release delayed until 2021 due to COVID). Since that album’s release Spiral Grave has continued to tour, playing live dates and festivals in and around their home area of MD/VA, going as far west as Texas. In addition, the band has recorded their sophomore effort Ill Repute, which is scheduled for a 2024 release from Argonauta Records.

SPIRAL GRAVE:
Screaming Mad Dee – voice
Willy Rivera – guitar
Louis Strachan – bass
Jason “Mot” Waldmann – drums

https://www.facebook.com/SpiralGrave/
https://spiralgrave.bandcamp.com/

www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/argonautarecords

Spiral Grave, “The Death of Ronnie M.” official video

Look at the blue text below and you know what you’re gonna see? Yes, a whole lot of skull emojis. Like a lot. But it happens that each individual one corresponds to a demonstration of the labor of love and community that is the Maryland Doom Festival. From Abel Blood through Zekiah, Maryland Doom Fest 2024 celebrates its 10th anniversary edition with its standard sans-bullshit glut of heavy. Once more the Frederick-based event looks your square in the eye, drops for absolutely immersive days on you and asks if you’re up for it. Well, are ya?

I’m not sure what my summer travel plans are yet — this and Freak Valley have overlapped the last couple years for me — but it’s been since 2019 that I was last down there and oh I’d be so eager to show up and have the three or four people who recognize me (and thus make it feel like an absolute family experience; love love love everywhere you go down there) quietly think to themselves I’ve gotten older and fatter en route to obliterating myself with volume for about 96 hours straight. Fuck. King. A.

Oh, and I hear Thunderbird Divine have new stuff in the works and it’s amazing. So that’s a thing too.

Social media had it like this:

We are super stoked to share with you the Maryland Doom Fest 2024 rosters, schedules, and lineups!!!

#4daysofdoom

THE MARYLAND DOOM FEST 2024

✝️Thursday June 20

Cafe 611-

💀 Thunderhorse
1115-1230
💀 The Magpie
1010-1055
💀 Born of Plagues
905-950
💀 Stone Nomads
800-845
💀 Pyre Fyre
700-740
💀 Dirt Eater
600-640

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Spellbook
920-1000
💀 Strange Highways
820-900
💀 Bailjack
720-800
💀 Stone Brew
620-700
💀 Abel Blood
520-600

✝️Friday June 21

Cafe 611-

💀 Diggeth
1215-120
💀 Shadow Witch
1110-1155
💀 Red Beard Wall
1010-1050
💀 CROP
910-950
💀 Almost Honest
810-850
💀 Cobra Whip
715-750
💀 The Crows Eye
620-655
💀 Stereo Christ
525-600

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Ten Ton Slug
915-1000
💀 Thousand Vision Mist
815-855
💀 Crowhunter
715-755
💀 Asthma Castle
615-655
💀 Bonded by Darkness
515-555

✝️Saturday June 22

Cafe 611-

💀 WHORES.
1150-115
💀 AGE/S
1040-1130
💀 Bloodshot
935-1020
💀 O ZORN!
830-915
💀 Double Planet
730-810
💀 Sun Years
630-710
💀 When the Deadbolt Breaks
530-610

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Black Water Rising
915-1000
💀 Switchblade Jesus
815-855
💀 Wyndrider
715-755
💀 Indus Valley Kings
615-655
💀 Vermillion Whiskey
515-555
💀 Doctor Smoke
415-455

✝️Sunday June 23

Cafe 611-

💀 Cirith Ungol
1200-110
💀 Mythosphere
1055-1140
💀 Conclave
955-1035
💀 Compression
855-935
💀 Sons of Arrakis
755-835
💀 Curse the Son
655-735
💀 Kulvera
555-635
💀 Old Blood
500-535
💀 Cloud Machine
405-440

Olde Mother Brewery-

💀 Thunderbird Divine
920-1000
💀 Black Manta
820-900
💀 High Noon Kahuna
720-800
💀 Unity Reggae
620-700
💀 King Bastard
520-600
💀 Zekiah
420-500

52 bands over a 4 day weekend at 2 venues across the street from one another!!
#4daysofdoom

WEEKEND PASSES: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-maryland-doom-fest-2024-tickets-732298202637?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Thunderbird Divine, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe” (Barry White cover)

With headlining performances slated from a soon-to-retire Cirith Ungol, noise crushers Whores., mostly-local melodic heavy proggers Mythosphere, Switchblade Jesus, Conclave, Ten Ton Slug (from Ireland; I got to see them one time; way burly; they’ll do well in Frederick), and plenty of other returning acts and newcomers alike, the lineup for Maryland Doom Fest 2024 could hardly be more appropriate a celebration of the annual Chesapeake gathering’s 10th anniversary. Based in Frederick, the four-day ultra-consuming sensory assault of volume will once again take place at Cafe 611 and Olde Mother Brewing, and if you’ve never been, I’ll tell you outright there’s nothing quite like it.

I mean that. Maryland Doom Fest goes harder than the average festival. A day might start at 1PM and not end until 2AM. And now more than ever, as the fest has grown with the two venues running alongside each other, the bill is packed. I think this year was 50 bands? Well, they’ve got 52 for 2024, and while next June is a while out, there’s a tradition to uphold of Halloween announcements, and festival honcho JB Matson (Bloodshot, War Injun, Outside Truth, etc.) pays tribute to his regulars — Shadow Witch, Bailjack, Thunderbird Divine, Thousand Vision Mist (congratulations to Danny Kenyon of Thousand Vision Mist on recently kicking cancer’s ass), among others here — while also giving showcase to outfits like Pyre Fyre, O Zorn! (whose very moniker heralds weirdness), WyndRider and more.

Congrats to Matson and all at Maryland Doom Fest on their 10th anniversary. To do something of this scope once is a lot. To do it across 10 years, well, aside from being fucking crazy, it’s also deeply admirable.

The aforementioned announcement — brief as ever; the poster lands heavy enough to cover any lack of verbiage — follows, courtesy of socials. Ticket link is there too:

WE ARE EXTREMELY PLEASED TO PRESENT TO YOU, THE MARYLAND DOOM FEST 2024 LINEUP!!!!!
THIS WILL BE OUR 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!!
(#128128#)(#129304#)(#128128#)

52 bands over a 4 day weekend at 2 venues across the street from one another!!
#4daysofdoom

WEEKEND PASSES: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-maryland-doom-fest-2024-tickets-732298202637?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Ten Ton Slug, Live at Red Crust Festival 2022

[Click play above to stream Dee Calhoun’s Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow through Argonauta Records.]

Perhaps best known as the final vocalist for Iron Man and for currently fronting Spiral Grave, who are the spiritual successors of said legends of Maryland doom, Dee Calhoun takes on the task of his fourth solo album in expansive fashion. Across 10 songs/51 minutes, Calhoun, bassist “Iron” Louis Strachan (also of Iron Man lineage, as well as Life Beyond and Wretched) and percussionist/vocalist Rob Calhoun, present Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia as a complement to a Calhoun-penned collection of four novellas published under the same name. As regards full-lengths, it follows behind 2020’s Godless (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), his debut, Rotgut (review here), having arrived in 2016, and maintains in the vein of the Southern apocalyptic acoustic metal that has typified Calhoun‘s work to-date.

But the arrangements run deeper on Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia, and though Calhoun — who here is multi-instrumentalist as well as singer, playing acoustic and electric guitar and a variety of other stringed instruments as well as keyboard — and many songs are united by a kind of heavy, rhythmic, maybe software-based thud, a large-footed stomp in leaves or dirt that one compare to some of Author & Punisher‘s mammoth plod. As Calhoun makes his way through opener “The Day the Rats Came to Town,” soaring on the first sung lyric after the spoken intro, backed by acoustic guitar and harmonica, some flourish of electric guitar hints at the depth of detailing to follow throughout, whether it’s in a whisper track as on “Conjured” or the later “All I Need is One,” the sample at the start of “Verachte Diese Hure,” or the higher-notes line of keys peppered into “Pulse,” and so on. Like some aspect of each of Calhoun‘s solo albums to-date, the abiding theme is anti-religious, untrusting of the traveling preacher who turns out to be the devil, and so on, Calhoun at once sympathetic for the plight of this imaginary devil-beset populace and kind of calling them stupid for believing in the first place: “Closing minds that open wounds in the name of a counterfeit god/With the sin of their own, they spare the rod,” go the lyrics of “Pulse.”

Religious corruption is not the only theme, of course. Calhoun follows the sample in “Verachte Diese Hure” (German for ‘despise this whore’) with some far back percussion, string sounds and a simple, consistent beat, with his voice using the space in the mix, powerful as one might expect. There’s some swagger in his guitar work that wouldn’t be there a couple years ago, and he’s more willing to dwell in the parts, as later shows on the tense verses of “Self-Inflicted,” backed by Rob and a lower-mixed, slow beat behind the guitar. “A Wish in the Darkness” brings a Zeppelin via Down key change to brighter acoustic sentiments, its vocals in layers except that howl of “too late!” before three minutes in and folkish complemented by subtle keys later and Strachan‘s bassline.

That fullness of sound continues on the subsequent “New Modern World” with its hints toward flamenco rhythm missing just the the handclaps joining in and old Western catchiness, the vocals (at least) doubled over the sharp guitar progression as Rob takes his first and likely not last lead spot, plenty of room later for the harmonica solo and whatever wobbly-metal-thing, possibly found instrument percussion is banged on in the background, effectively, since for all the progression and opening sonic doors and bringing in new elements Calhoun does throughout Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia, it’s also his fourth album and by now he’s clearly got a decent idea of the kind of fun he’s looking to have. “New Modern World” is hookier than some of the material around it, but is a fitting landmark as Calhoun and company roll through “Pulse” and the dramatic, guitar-forward, swirling around of “Self-Inflicted,” which is foreboding in a less direct way than “Verachte Diese Hure” but still gets its point across in lyrics like “No life, no hope, no chance, no love from anywhere/Lash out but no one seems to care.” Amid distant crackles keeping the rhythm, keyboard enters at around three minutes in, the brooding sensibility maintained.

“Stand With Me” reignites the don’t-come-’round-here-again twang of “Verachte Diese Hure,” but pairs it with harmonized vocals — Dee and his daughter Nadia — and a fuller-sounding arrangement, that same thud buried under the guitars, harmonica or some such, some kind of thing-hitting-another-thing keeping a tinny beat for an extra backwoods feel that reminds all the more of Larman Clamor‘s swamp blues on “All I Need is One,” which follows and puts a heavier, distorted single-stringed diddley bow at the start before an up-front verse takes hold, down to the business of semi-plugged blues metal. A there and gone whisper, intertwining strum and shaker, it’s doom, or at very least Calhoun‘s recontextualizing of it. He is guttural in the line, “I don’t need a million preachers telling me the shape I’m in/All I need is one solution and the healing can begin,” and could carry this material with his voice alone, easily, but that he doesn’t is emblematic of his growth as a songwriter and his emergent willingness to experiment around his central approach.

The final lines of “All I Need is One” are about having “zero fucks to give,” the last one purposefully over-the-top and hilariously grandiose, and if that’s what’s gotten him to where he is, fair enough. As regards philosophies, one could clearly do worse. The closing title-track (premiered here) caps with continued thud and apocalyptic storytelling, some residual metallic shimmer or shake or rattle, and melody forcefully delivered in a way that’s very much Calhoun‘s own despite its long roots in classic metal. “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” is the longest cut on the album that shares its name at 6:50, and feels like it’s building initially, though it evens out as the verses unfold.

One can’t help but wonder what a full-band arrangement from Dee Calhoun — the name as a band — might sound like, with drums, bass, guitars, maybe keys given the more prominent role they play here? I don’t know, but Calhoun might get there given the steady growth in his approach that’s unfurled across what’s by this time a respectable solo catalog to go with all his ‘in-band’ pedigree. Multifaceted and multimedia as the album, book, videos and so forth are, it’s difficult to summarize a narrative or speak for the full scope of the outing, but in offering his audience as much depth as possible for Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia, Calhoun is well in keeping with the longstanding, sleeve-worn passion that’s been driving him all this time.

Dee Calhoun, “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” official video

Dee Calhoun on Facebook

Dee Calhoun on Instagram

Dee Calhoun website

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records on Instagram

Argonauta Records on Bandcamp

This one hits a little harder than this kind of news generally might, in part because Caustic Casanova so gleefully seemed to stomp all over the proverbial ‘next level’ with their 2022 album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (review here), which — if you have to have that as your last record, at least it saves you the trouble of trying to top it. I’ve gone on and on about its multi-tiered brilliance, and the performance on vocals and drums of Stefanie Zaenker is a crucial, integral part of that. As regards the band in its until-now-current configuration, she is essential personnel. Her leaving after 18 years, well, that’s a tough one to take.

On the other hand, after 18 years, I sincerely doubt she owes anyone anything, so if it was time to go, that’s all there is to it. Bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer — the four-piece is (was?) completed by guitarists Jake Kimberley and Andrew Yonki — posted the following on social media and I think in reading the personal nature of that loss comes through. I don’t know how Caustic Casanova moves forward without Zaenker in the lineup, but I also can’t imagine being a drummer, hearing their last record, and not wanting to join the band, so it’s entirely possible they might find somebody and be able to keep going. No question that any future incarnation would be a significant change in style and personality. If you ever saw them live (I’m sad I didn’t for this album) or checked them out at all, you know Zaenker was one of a kind in what she brought to the mix. I would have loved to see that full-arrangement “Bull Moose Against the Sky.”

So yeah, deep exhale. Here’s the post:

Hello, Francis here.

Stefanie has decided to leave Caustic Casanova, permanently and effective immediately. There will be no final shows or goodbye tours or anything like that, unfortunately.

For 18 amazing years, she was the beating heart and belting soul of this eclectic music machine that went from college dorm room band to a nationally touring heavy rock behemoth. She is an elite level drummer, masterful composer, and all-around fantastic musician. She became an outstanding co-vocalist and, most recently, keyboardist. She booked tours, handled logistics, drove the van, and did anything and everything to help this band succeed. In many ways, she was the leader of Caustic Casanova. She put everything she had into it. The amount of times she resolutely kept us going when things looked bleak: you have no idea. CC wouldn’t have made it five years, much less eighteen, without her strength and vision, determination and grit. Eventually, all truly great things do come to an end. Honestly, more important than the music is the bond that Stefanie and I shared since 2005, that Andrew and her shared since 2012 (and before that, too, as friends), and that Jake and her shared since 2019. Touring that much, writing that much, practicing that much, hanging out that much (24/7 on the road) — it’s a kind of closeness with another human being few will ever know. It’s so sad to lose it, to know that it’s over. It doesn’t just feel like a part of me is gone — a major part of me IS gone. 18 years is a long time to be a rhythm section.

Her first show was April 20th, 2005 at Lodge One, Williamsburg, VA, The College of William and Mary. Her final show was December 19th, 2022 at Highlands Tap Room, Louisville, KY, for Metal Monday. In between that time we played in almost every state in the lower 48, as well as in three provinces of Canada.

Where this leaves the band I simply cannot say. The idea of Stef taking a break, or bowing out, had been bandied about since the winter. I hoped she might reconsider. Later I thought there might be some transition over to another drummer with her help and blessing. I even fantasized about getting in a farewell show or two. I hoped to play “Bull Moose Against the Sky” live, at least once, with J Robbins and Howard Parker on stage and a guest on keyboards. Many nights I fell asleep imagining a packed house at Pie Shop in DC erupting as we kicked into the 22 minute song with the acapella intro. Unfortunately, none of that can happen anymore.

Part of me thinks this is the natural end of Caustic Casanova. Part of me thinks, considering all our successes in 2022, that the band should continue, if the right drummer can be found, though that’s an extremely tall order. Part of me thinks an indefinite hiatus is the way to go, so I can process all of this. If you’ve got thoughts, advice, encouragement, feel free to share. Also, feel free to share your favorite Zaenker memories from shows, records, couchsurfing, hanging out, etc! Let’s celebrate Stef’s indelible contributions to CC, the DC music scene, and the larger heavy rock/stoner/doom scene.

Regardless of what happens with the band, there will be additional recordings released digitally this summer, all featuring Stef on drums and vocals. The live version of Filth Castle / Poor Wigs from Sky Stage and the EPPPCOT EP will go on all streaming services, and we’ll have Pantheon: Vol. 4 after that, and then a live recording will follow. I am not anticipating anything physical for these but you never know.

I ask that you please not speculate about or discuss the band members’ personal lives in the comments. If you do, it will be deleted. Please reach out to one of us individually if you want clarification. The social media accounts are entirely run by me (Fran) now.

One final time, thank you to Stefanie Zaenker for eighteen amazing years of bringing the thunder behind the kit and being such a wonderful part of our lives! I know I speak for the band and all of CC Nation when we loudly proclaim: WE WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

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Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

Solo singer-songwriter Dee Calhoun, who also fronts Spiral Grave and counts Maryland doom legends Iron Man among a slew of others in his pedigree, will release his fourth album, Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia, through Argonauta Records on June 23. The record arrives concurrent to a short-story/novella collection — also available as an audiobook read by the author — that’s Calhoun‘s fifth published work, and as he also produced and engineered the album, performed as multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, it’s a complete narrative work overseen by a distinct vision of what Calhoun wants the tale to be and how he might want it told.

In continued allegiance with bassist “Iron Louis” Strachan and percussionist/sometimes vocalist/progeny Rob Calhoun, the singer who for years has had “Screaming Mad” appear before his name in Spiral Grave, Iron Man — for whom he also flirted with recording on 2012’s Att hålla dig över EP — and other outfits has it seems grown more methodical than the title would imply. “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia,” the title-track of the record the video for which you can see premiering below, follows the storyline of the devil arriving in a small rural town at some point in the overall-wearing past and sets about making deals to trick people out of their souls and other devilish fun-pretend whatnot. You know, Satan stuff. The uzh, or however you spell it.

Animated by Chaos Cartoons, who also recently realized High Noon Kahuna‘s video for “Danger Noodle” (premiered here) — their Maryland bona fides well in check — the clip calls to mind some of the spooky brooding and grim landscapes that fellow ’90s products of a nerdy persuasion might liken to Vampire Hunter D, but the setting is part of the story here. As Mormonism asks what might’ve been had Jesus come to America — try the fish, but not too much of it or you’ll get poisoned — the clip for “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” resonates blues-of-eld vibes throughout its acoustimetal procession, Calhoun‘s singularly powerful vocals at the forefront as if by their very nature they could ever be anywhere else.

As regards solo work, this has been Calhoun‘s niche all along, but his fourth LP in seven years and the follow-up to 2020’s Godless (review here) sees Calhoun step into the storyteller role with increased surety and an instrumental confidence that’s grown bolder since 2016’s Rotgut (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), and the detailing in the background of “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” brings that into clear relief. It’s there in the richness of the acoustic strum, underscored and bolstered by the bassline with hand-drums backing as Calhoun goes into fire-and-brimstone mode before the song’s halfway point, Dee Calhoun coming to the precipice of being a band rather than a project, holding firm to unplugged dark-country and Baptist balladeering with the righteousness of the unreligious.

Calhoun notes below the banjo, shovel guitar and cigar box guitar used to flesh out the arrangement for “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia.” That he’d be hearing those kinds of sonic details in writing and recording a song — that drive to put something there just because it feels right and the song wants it — speaks to the progression of his craftsmanship as a solo artist. A narrative concept LP based on a short story collection and accompanied by that and the audiobook, everything all tied together in that way, isn’t the kind of thing a frontman does their first time out. Calhoun has been building toward this all the while, and Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia is his most three-dimensional, textured work yet.

Video premiere below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Dee Calhoun, “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” video premiere

Dee Calhoun on “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia”:

“Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” is a story of the dark one riding the rails to collect souls from the small corners of the world. It illustrates how the line between what’s good and what’s evil can be blurred once corruption has taken hold. The instrumentation of the song features a lot of elements to really give the song a dark, backwoods kind of feel; shovel guitar, cigar box guitars, and even a banjo make an appearance.

The animation was done by Troy Darr with Chaos Cartoons, and I am thrilled with the job he did. It’s my first time seeing one of my stories in visual form, and it was great to watch it all come together in that form.

Coming on June 23rd, the album will coincide with the release of Dee’s fifth book, “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia (four devilish novelettes).” CD1 of the two-disc set will feature ten songs, while CD2 will feature the audiobook of the title novelette, read by the author.

Written during COVID lockdowns, the songs on OSCtA include a number of non-traditional stringed instruments such as cigar box guitars, shovel guitars, and diddley bows. Again joining Dee are bassist Louis Strachan and percussionist Rob Calhoun (who sings lead vocals on two tracks).

“Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia” will be released by Argonauta Records on CD and DIGITAL, and “Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia (four devilish novelettes)” will be available from Kindle Direct Publishing, each on June 23rd.

TRACKLIST:
1. The Day the Rats Came to Town
2. Verachte Diese Hure
3. A Wish in the Darkness
4. New Modern World
5. Conjured
6. Pulse
7. Self-Inflicted
8. Stand With Me
9. All I Need is One
10. Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia

Dee Calhoun on Facebook

Dee Calhoun on Instagram

Dee Calhoun website

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records on Instagram

Argonauta Records on Bandcamp