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Album Premiere & Review: Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on October 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Caustic Casanova Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

[Click play above to stream Caustic Casanova’s Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. Album is out Friday, Oct. 7, on Magnetic Eye Records and can be preordered here.]

It does not matter what genre label you want to put on Caustic Casanova‘s fifth album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. There is no box, no simple explanation from which it will not wiggle loose. What is hands-down one of the best offerings of 2022 in the stylistic umbrella that is heavy rock, it is a definitive manifestation of who the band have always been and who their potential has meant they could be. From professing love amid pedal steel and a newfound affection for synth that will continue to serve them well in “Anubis Rex,” happenstance-skewering like it’s no big deal both sides of maybe the stupidest debate in recorded human history — ‘iz medicin halp?’ — in the single lyric, “But with perfect ideology it’s impossible to spread disease,” of “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” to narrating totalitarian anxieties via Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in “Bull Moose Against the Sky,” Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is likewise intricately composed and untethered feeling, the band — bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer, drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zænker, guitarist Andrew Yonki and, involved for the first time in the writing, second guitarist Jake Kimberley — mining creative triumph from the raw ore of human decline.

Instrumentally, lyrically and in their performance as captured here by returning producer J. Robbins (and returning mixer Andrew Schneider; it’s a winning team), with whom the band have worked for over a decade, Caustic Casanova are a blast. “Anubis Rex” begins with a sunrise of guitar, and from there the momentum is quickly established across the three shorter opening tracks — “Anubis Rex” (posted here), “Lodestar” (video posted here) and “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” (video posted here) — as the band twist from one part to the next in an establish-the-riff-then-start-the-vocals manner that speaks to their underlying foundation in post-hardcore.

Each of these three pieces, all of which are under five minutes long, offers something else, whether it’s the bass punch of “Lodestar,” the hungover, grown-up emo of “Anubis Rex” or the encapsulation of our era, percussive playfulness and restless freneticism of “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” but they are united in perspective, in their thoughtful execution, lyrics that are smart, funny, an obvious focal point and worth committing to memory, and in their ability as players to launch into another level of heft even from was on offer in 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here). “Anubis Rex” is more about movement than weight, relatively speaking, but with its mathy beginning “Lodestar” both makes and delivers on the threat, with Caustic Casanova harnessing a sound like the band one wishes Mastodon had become, able to dizzy with complex, progressively styled changes while remaining accessible via the overarching melody and, in this case, a hook.

“A Bailar Con Cuarentena” is a highlight that builds off elements put forth in the first two tracks — thus a logical third — and lives up to having the word ‘dance’ in its title while still managing a linear narrative that moves from sipping mental champagne with shut-in multitudes to finding out why the rattlesnake’s teeth are so white. It also serves as a lead-in for the 9:40 “Shrouded Coconut,” a marked shift in approach that pulls away from the immediacy of the first three tracks in favor of a long instrumental stretch before its first verse, playing back and forth between riffs and leads over a swinging beat, spacious keys, etc., for the better part of its initial four minutes — longer than “Lodestar,” which is 3:41, for example — before Beringer and Zænker begin singing. The change can be jarring if you don’t know it’s coming, but “Shrouded Coconut” offers depth for repeat listeners in its plotted movement and increase in intensity later as they cut the tempo and shift into a feedback-laced lumber the likes of which would bring a tear to Floor‘s collective eye, ending in a solid minute of noise that feels well earned as a cap to side A.

Caustic Casanova

By this time, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center has set itself up for what follows on the 22-minute “Bull Moose Against the Sky,” a genuine epic tale complete with multiple characters between Theodore Roosevelt, his wife Edith, attempted-assassin John Flammang Schrank, Jane Addams, William Howard Taft (played by Robbins) and a Greek-style chorus. The lyrics are set up as a kind of morality play, with lines and verses given to characters beginning with Beringer a capella soon joined by Zænker as they describe a fever dream of the Dakotas. This beginning, after all the noise at the end of “Shrouded Coconut,” is stark and the snare and guitar work that follows is heavy Americana wrought in such a way as to emphasize both the theatrics — all that’s missing in that start is a fife, and I’m not sure a fife would actually work there; there’s just about no way it wasn’t considered — but within the first five minutes, they’ve built on the heft in “Lodestar” and “Shrouded Coconut,” drawn themselves out through winding crunch accordingly, and begun the tale of Roosevelt deciding to run for President a third time, being shot, losing and ultimately dying.

I’ll just say it and get it out of the way: It’s the best song I’ve heard this year, as both a story/conceptual work and just as a righteous summary of the band. From the pride-swell vocals at the start to the sneaky entry after seven minutes in of the “Thriller”-style keyboards soon to swell to prominence as Edith declares/warns, “He’s a magnet/A comet/With molten and volcanic core,” to the thrust backing Robbins-as-Taft’s resolve, “I have a part to play/I’ll play it,” and the turns past the 10-minute mark between the chorus and the increasing frenzy of Roosevelt’s mindset — mirrored in the music, naturally — that give way to a post-black metal mini-stretch of blastbeats and reverb-soaked vocals from Zænker, because why not, and a bright-sounding momentary up-for-air that results in a highlight guitar solo, mapped out and no less considered than any of the words to any of these songs, before a standout verse of looming storm begins the apex movement of the piece. Yes, there is more blasting as Beringer-as-Roosevelt berates with outdated namecalling, “Weasel worders, mollycoddlers, kittle cattle, tame/The black blood crusts around the mouths of those you have betrayed,” and it comes after a sweeping and progressive noise rock tumult from which they sprint driven by suitable tremolo and, at 18:25, a resounding thud that is the signal of entry into the song’s still-heavy comedown.

Like all that feedback at the end of “Shrouded Coconut,” the denouement in “Bull Moose Against the Sky” is purposeful and makes a fitting conclusion. Roosevelt swaggers, “It’ll take more than a bullet to kill a bull moose like me,” but the keyboard has already started the dirge that the whole band will soon take up, the guitars seeming to claw for more life even as the final lines are recited in callback to earlier verses, leaving no loose ends instrumental or otherwise. So it is that Glass Enclosed Nerve Center finishes with a distant echo of guitar playing the melodic answer to “Face is marred by sweat [blood] and dust/Fails again and again and just gets up.” Silence weighs heavy when it is finished, underscoring the power of the song to make its audience feel something for this character who, in addition to sport-killing in colonialist fervor throughout his life, was a megalomaniac who sabotaged his own political party in unhinged bridge-burning zealotry. Nobody remembers that part. Everybody remembers the face on Mt. Rushmore.

And while “Bull Moose Against the Sky” is a career achievement in its own right, it is not at all the sum total of accomplishments on Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. Each of these five tracks adds something to the whole, is crucial in craft and engaging regardless of the approach one wants to take in hearing it. Touring veterans at more nearly 15 years’ remove from their 2008 debut, Imminent EminenceCaustic Casanova are a refreshing answer to the cynicism of both “rock is dead” and “there’s too much out there and it all sounds the same.” They are between punk, metal, prog, noise and heavy rock(s) in such a way as to be on a wavelength of their own, and while that’s been the case for some time, never before have they come across as so utterly in command of their style and songwriting. They have pushed and pushed and pushed themselves creatively ever forward in an individual approach, and this is one of the best albums of 2022 with longer, enduring resonance anticipated. Some records you just know you’re going to live with. Recommended.

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

Caustic Casanova website

Caustic Casanova on Facebook

Caustic Casanova on Instagram

Caustic Casanova on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

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Caustic Casanova Post “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Caustic Casanova A Bailar Con Cuarentena

Caustic Casanova bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer below cites the lyrics to the band’s new single, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” as perhaps his favorite ever, which even considering the rest of their upcoming LP, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (out Oct. 7 on Magnetic Eye Records, set to stream here in full on Oct. 5) never mind their four prior albums and sundry other releases, is saying something. But yeah, it’s understandable. The band isn’t through the first verse before they’ve introduced the AutoZone Messiah and made fun of his mullet with bonus wordplay in substituting “piety” for “party,” toyed with language in multiple languages and established the setting for the song in the age of the titular pandemic quarantine.

Oh but there’s more. Consider the phonetic chicanery between “Logorrhea” and “lager,” a French pronunciation for “timbre” tossed in for good measure to make it work with “amber,” or the similar rhyme-plus pairing of “Appalachianese” and “ideology.” The gleefully weird, mundane-as-unfamiliar portrayed in the lines, “Another incantation from the half-mad cocatrice/Peaceful defenestration from the rock band name police,” and “defenestration” for “demonstration” there. The classic post-hardcore word swap of “seat”/”screen” codifying the awaiting if word and signal earlier. The sheer encapsulation of the era in “This news is big if true.” Shit that’s efficient. And the air of threat in the final part, where we meet and speak with the rattlesnake. Favorite or not, the attention to detail and composition in “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” is deeply, deeply admirable.

And the video is so perfectly odd. Animated by Jase Harper, with birds a plenty and some only-suitable headbanging, we see Beringer, drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zaenker and guitarist Jake Kimberley playing as a trio while remotely-located guitarist Andrew Yonki looks down as an angry sun. Heads are flowers, times are a tough and riffs are mighty. No, I’m not sick of telling you how good this record is. If I have any credibility at all after running this site for the last 13-plus years of my wretched life, please believe me when I tell you Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is something special from this band and not to be missed.

I had bothered Beringer a while back for the lyric sheet to go with the album, and seeing his note below, asked for permission to post the words to the song with the video. You’ll find them below, and so far as I know this is the first time they’ve been made public.

Enjoy the clip:

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Order now: http://lnk.spkr.media/caustic-casanova-2022

Directed and animated by Jase Harper (Jaseharper.com)
Videography and headbanging by Chris Joao

´A Bailar Con Cuarentena´, our first song with a title entirely en español, is one of the weirdest Caustic Casanova songs ever. It has a fairly interesting history. It’s the first Caustic Casanova song I’m aware of that started with lyrics first. I built the riffs around the words, and then altered the delivery of the words around Stefanie’s drum ideas. As a result of that intricate words-riffs-drums interplay the song is firing on all cylinders, rhythmically speaking, at every moment.

Stefanie initially didn’t like the song, and didn’t want to go through with finishing it, but I insisted that it would eventually be great if we pushed and pushed. During the pandemic we had a lot of time to work on it and hammer out its numerous difficulties. Stefanie harbored some concern that the tune wouldn’t be heavy, but when Jake got his hands on the bass and drum music after nearly a year of separation among us, he unleashed his crackling fuzz and octave-down fury all over it, turning it into one of the heaviest and most over the top Caustic Casanova songs ever, especially at the end. It’s easily the most challenging live song we’ve ever written — from a physical playing standpoint, it requires the entire band to be locked in and focused for every moment. The material is that demanding.

The lyrics were, at first, about something else (and the title was about dancing with a shark, not dancing with the quarantine). I never intended to write a song about the year 2020 and being stuck at home with an infectious disease panicking the shut-in multitudes. But so many lines that were written pre-pandemic seemed so strangely perfect for a pandemic era song that I eventually got rid of everything that didn’t fit with the theme and filled it out as the album’s “quarantine song.” In the end, it’s probably my favorite set of lyrics I’ve ever written.

The music video, another collaboration with our long time artist Jase Harper, is our first foray into animation and live action combined. It visually represents the fact that we’re sometimes a live trio, with Stefanie, Jake, and me, and sometimes a live four piece with Andrew. Since he lives in upstate New York and we’re in Maryland, we simply can’t get together as often as we’d like for shows and tours. In this video, Andrew plays a sun and moon god figure, a man trapped in a celestial body, desperately trying to re-assume his true human form and join his band for some riffs upon a jungle altar of madness. I never thought about this until just now, but it’s a good representation of all of us coming out of quarantine, learning to become real humans and functioning musicians and music fans again.
— Francis

Lyrics:
A Bailar Con Cuarentena
Words: Beringer
Music: Zaenker / Kimberley / Beringer

It’s business in the front, and piety in the back
The autozone messiah says come on in let’s have a snack
We’re grilling sacred cows, it’s conquistador cuisine
A bailar con quarantine urges our spanglish language magazine

Another incantation from the half-mad cocatrice
Peaceful defenestration from the rock band name police

We’re sipping mental champagne with the shut in multitudes
Meanwhile Satan lost your records in the hospital of doom

I am patiently and eagerly awaiting word from my captors, madam
We are patiently and eagerly awaiting some type of signal from your people, madam

This news is big if true

Something sinister’s sweeping through the people of this planet who aren’t you

Logorrhea’s soothing pace and timbre
Well the lager’s crisp, have a refreshing amber
And I’m glued to the seat by God again
Glued to the screen by God, amen! Amen!

In perfect appalaichanese
He said docs don’t know they spread disease
But with perfect ideology
It’s impossible to spread disease

Rattlesnake, rattlesnake why your teeth so white?
Been living in the bottom so damn long all I know how to do is bite

All I do is, all I do is, all I know how to do is bite

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

Caustic Casanova website

Caustic Casanova on Facebook

Caustic Casanova on Instagram

Caustic Casanova on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

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Caustic Casanova Post “Anubis Rex”; Tour Dates Impending

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

caustic casanova

Chesapeake progressive noise rockers Caustic Casanova will launch a tour on Sept. 10 headed out west to Monolith on the Mesa — kudos to the Taos, New Mexico-based festival for understanding what to-date mostly Maryland Doom Fest has known and a whole bunch of others are going to find out shortly — and as they continue to herald the upcoming Oct. 7 release of their new album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center on Magnetic Eye Records, a second single from the record emerges in the form of “Anubis Rex.” The opener follows behind “Lodestar” and brings post-hardcore vibes front and center as well as a whole bunch of ‘firsts’ for the band as bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer notes in the comment below. You can hear that Thin Lizzy for sure, along with some ’00s emo, the pedal steel and a lot, a lot, a lot of shove. It’s a mover, it’s about love, and it’s gonna be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. If you’re lucky.

I’m slated to review and stream Glass Enclosed Nerve Center on Oct. 5, but before we get there I’ll tell you happily I can’t put the record down, and I can think of only one other album so far in 2022 that’s had such an effect on my passive and active listening habits, and as I start to think about album-of-the-year-type conversations, that weighs heavily. Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is a strong contender in that regard for me — it also runs away with the best song I’ve heard this year in the 22-minute finale “Bull Moose Against the Sky” — so if you haven’t gotten hyped up on it yet, “Anubis Rex” represents it well as the leadoff.

And pretty much I’m making this post to say exactly that.

Have fun:

caustic casanova sept tour

CAUSTIC CASANOVA unveil new single ‘Anubis Rex’ taken from forthcoming album “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” on Magnetic Eye Records

CAUSTIC CASANOVA gleefully present their eclectic best sides on the second new single, ‘Anubis Rex’. The track is taken from the Washington D.C.-based riff-rockers’ forthcoming album “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”. The full-length has been scheduled for release on October 7.

The twisted new song opens with a country-style guitar slide and sports the Latin title ‘Anubis Rex’ (“King Anubis”), and refers to the Egyptian god of death rites. On their fifth album, the brain-frying “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, Washington, DC-based riffonauts CAUSTIC CASANOVA pull an expansive range of sounds into their tight, hyperkinetic core – and explode them outward in a kaleidoscope of progressive heavy rock exuberance. In ferocious opposition to playing music in an established style that might give listeners a way in but can narrow down what’s allowable, the foursome plant their flag dramatically on the side of genre-agnostic exploration. Simply put, the Americans allow each song to go wherever the hell it wants (or needs) to head towards.

CAUSTIC CASANOVA comment: “This is the first song that we wrote entirely in our new four-piece line-up, featuring the at the time new member Jake Kimberley on guitar as it goes way back to spring 2019. For the first time, we are using extended sections of dual guitar harmonies. It’s also our first song with synthesizer keyboards and our first original track featuring guest instrumentalist Howard Parker on pedal steel guitar. Actually, we kept his first take for the record. Furthermore, it is our first song with obvious country music influences as well as our first time with a clear Thin Lizzy influence. Finally, it is a first that we are doing overtly and without question a love song. This song exemplifies everything that we are doing well – in terms of genre-smashing and riff rock rhythmic excess, while still breaking new creative ground for us regarding melodies and arrangements. Long-time fans will note the sonic resemblance to another album opener, which is also my other favorite song, ‘Thundersnow’ on breaks. Those similarities are intentional. I see both songs as two parts of the same hopeful, uplifting, and heavy prog-pop spectacle.”

Caustic Casanova “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”
Out October 7th on Magnetic Eye Records

Preorder:
worldwide: http://en.spkr.media
US/Canada: http://us.spkr.media

Hitting the road with The Obsessed and Ecstatic Vision, then coming home to a lovely shindig with King Buffalo and labelmates Heavy Temple!

9/10 – Louisville, KY at Portal at Fifteentwelve Creative Compound*
9/11 – Des Moines, IA at Lefty’s Live Music*
9/12 – St. Paul, MN at NorthStar Bar and Grill*
9/13 – Madison, WI at BarleyPop Live*
9/14 – St. Louis, MO at Red Flag*
9/16 – Taos, NM at Monolith on the Mesa*
9/29 – Baltimore, MD at Ottobar^

*w/ The Obsessed, Ecstatic Vision
^w/ King Buffalo, Heavy Temple

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Caustic Casanova, “Anubis Rex”

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Caustic Casanova to Release Glass Enclosed Nerve Center Oct. 7

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Caustic Casanova

You could sit down five times to try to describe Caustic Casanova‘s sound and come up with five completely different takes. And that’s why it’s fun. Unpredictable in their post-grunge, noise-rock-informed, heavy indie individualism, the now-four-piece will issue Glass Enclosed Nerve Center, their new full-length, on Oct. 7 through Magnetic Eye Records. It’s their second album for the label behind 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here) and though it’s been done since last November, with full schedules, pressing and shipping delays and whatnot, 11 months from one end to the other (plus studio time) might just be how long it takes to make a record now. I’d call it a brave new world, but it’s really more like Soylent Green.

Alas, new Caustic Casanova will invariably help. They’re streaming the track “Lodestar” now and you can hear that below, and even in its three-minute span you can hear why Caustic Casanova are the square peg in the round hole of genre classification. There is supposed to be a video coming out as well, I think today, so when and if that happens I’ll add that here [EDIT: It’s down there now.]. But in the meantime, the album cover and particulars are below, as yoinked from Bandcamp. Also of note, they’ll be at Monolith of the Mesa in September.

Dig this art:

Caustic Casanova Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

Caustic Casanova – Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

Preorder: https://causticcasanova.bandcamp.com/album/glass-enclosed-nerve-center

On their fifth album, the brain-frying “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, Washington, DC-based riffonauts CAUSTIC CASANOVA pull an expansive range of sounds into their tight, hyperkinetic core – and explode them outward in a kaleidoscope of progressive heavy rock exuberance. Formed in 2005 as the trio consisting of drummer and vocalist Stefanie Zaekner, bass-player and singer Francis Beringer, and guitarist Andrew Yonki, CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s chose a path to constantly refine their thrillingly unpredictable music, which careens from sardonic noise rock to proggy sludge in the vein of BARONESS, RED FANG, and TORCHE, while also taking inspiration from the gargantuan heft of MELVINS to BORIS, and fleet guitar heroics with flashes of dark-hued post-punk.

With the addition of second guitarist Jake Kimberley in 2019, the now-quartet set their sights on making the most adventurous and prog-rock CAUSTIC CASANOVA record yet. “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” underscores all their strengths while making the most of the expanded line-up that opened up their sound to new possibilities. Beringer’s reedy, melodic bass dances heavily alongside the two frying guitars to empower a trio of lead voices. Zaenker’s percussion is powerfully inventive across the album’s five expansive songs, sounding equally at home in swinging, Bill Ward stomp as in math-rock jitteriness.

Long-time travelers in CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s orbit will doubtless find “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” an exhilarating welcome back that includes the ambitiously sprawling, 22-minute epic ‘Bull Moose against the Sky’ which occupies the album’s entire B-side. Yet those who are new to the massive sound of these raging psychedelic sludge buffaloes will find outstanding songcraft and rich storytelling that is worth every second and countless repeat spins. Three, two, one… go!

Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Anubis Rex
2. Lodestar
3. A Bailar Con Cuarentena
4. Shrouded Coconut
Side B
5. Bull Moose Against The Sky

Buy at our shop here:
worldwide: http://en.spkr.media
US/Canada: http://us.spkr.media

Caustic Casanova live:
July 16: Holler of Doom II, London, KY w/ StormToker, Book of Wyrms and many others!

July 31: Cafe 611, Frederick, MD w/ The Obsessed, Strange Highways, Weed Coughin and Crow Hunter.

August 6: DC Brau, Washington, DC w/ Valkyrie

After that: TOUR BABY TOUR

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

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Pentagram Announce 50th Anniversary Shows

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

I’m not going to attempt to invalidate anyone’s feelings about Pentagram or their founding frontman Bobby Liebling. Not gonna do it. Although it seemed to be the reports of his having punched his mother that actually got him the most flack over recent years, there were prior allegations of sexual harassment on tour and while doom as a genre is pretty conservative, he’s about as close as I’ve seen anyone come to being ‘canceled’ in any form of underground heavy, with maybe one or two exceptions.

So I’m not looking for drama in posting about the band. If you think dude is a scumbag, maybe you’re right. I don’t really know him beyond his reputation as an addict, his undeniable charisma on stage. We’ve never hung out, in other words. But Pentagram are a band whose influence spans generations and continues to set riffers on a doomly course, and that’s not nothing. Lots of famous artists who’ve made significant aesthetic contributions are arguably unworthy of public adoration. If you put Liebling in that category or you don’t, to be perfectly honest I don’t have the energy to fight you either way.

I’ve had a chat or two with Greg Turley though over the years, and “Minnesota” Pete Campbell is a good guy. I don’t really know Matt Goldsborough, but he can sure play. So whatever. Not trying to trigger anybody here — and yeah, I mean that — but a 50th anniversary of a band’s existence, even if that band is long, long, long removed from its original incarnation and has had long, long, long periods of inactivity in that time, isn’t nothing. This is me noting it.

Dates came from social media:

pentagram summer 2022

In honor of the band’s 50th Anniversary, heavy metal pioneers PENTAGRAM return to the stage for a handful of select live performances!

You are cordially invited to come celebrate over a Half A Century of doom, hard rock and heavy metal alongside these living legends. The first string of performances break the band’s two and a half year hiatus and pledge to cover fan favorites from the past five decades.

Conceived on All Hallows Eve of 1971 by vocalist / songwriter Bobby Liebling and fellow hard rocker and horror fan Geof O’Keefe, the band had their first rehearsal on Christmas Night of the same year.

Secure your attendance now and partake in this historic soiree in one or more of the fine cities below. Further details and appearances will be revealed over the next days and weeks. Tickets may be obtained on our “Events” page: https://www.facebook.com/pentagramusa/events/

US Dates:
June 7 – Mechanicsburg PA @ Lovedraft’s brewing
June 8 – Boston MA @ Brighton music hall
June 9 – Portland ME @ Genos
June 10 – Brooklyn NY @ Sovereign
June 11 – New Haven CT @ State House
June 12 – Frederick MD @ cafe 611 w/ Bloodshot

Pentagram: Bobby Liebling, Greg Turley, Pete Campbell, Matt Goldsborough

http://www.PentagramOfficial.com
https://www.facebook.com/pentagramusa

Pentagram, “The Diver” 2022 Rehearsal

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Borracho Premiere “Caravan” Lyric Video; New Album in Progress

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

borracho

Washington, D.C. riff-rollers Borracho issued their fourth full-length, Pound of Flesh (review here), in Aug. 2021 with the vinyl backing of the respected purveyors at Kozmik Artifactz. They have reportedly started work on the next one, and given the outward-looking bent of the lyrics throughout Pound of Flesh as showcased in “Caravan” and the prior single “It Came From the Sky” (premiered here; hey, I’m allowed to like bands), I have significant doubts the three-piece will have run out of topics for discussion.

The lyrics are a focal point for “Caravan” enough for there to be a lyric video, but one ignores the stretch of keyboard running alongside the nodder riff in the song’s second half at one’s own peril. As guitarist Steve Fisher belts out the hook “All hope is gone/Still we travel on” to cut straight to the heart of a refugee’s plight — as relevant to Ukraine now as to Syria, Mexico, Uyghurs in China, and so on, as it was when the song was written, human beings drowning in the Mediterranean, the Rio Grande, the Gulf of Mexico, fleeing violence and dying from exposure in an empty expanse or freezing on cold ground — yes, it’s a downer. This is not an uplifting track, not party rock. Grim ideas on a grim subject.

But it’s not doom, despite that, or exploiting this horror to serve its own ends. Rather, Borracho find a sonic context in which to tell the story — bassist Tim Martin and drummer Mario Trubiano so fluid in delivering on the band’s ongoing stated promise of ‘repetitive heavy grooves’ (which they should really copyright by now) — that’s not too overblown in its heft but backs the lyrics and vocals an engrossing fuzz and roll such that the nine-minute track feels decidedly shorter as the various effects-manipulated landscapes of “Caravan” proceed past, emphasizing the feeling of journeying, maybe being lost.

I don’t know if “Caravan” is the last single Borracho will highlight from Pound of Flesh, but if so, it’s welcome news to see confirmed below that they’re putting together ideas to move forward with a next outing. “Caravan” is a song that brings to mind the work Borracho have put in over the last decade-plus to become the band they are, and the immersive power their songs can have while remaining largely straightforward in structure.

Enjoy the clip:

Borracho, “Caravan” lyric video premiere

A cold desert. A stormy sea. A mountain range. A strange land. Violence. Conflict. Terrorism. Economic crisis. They flee for many reasons and brave many dangers for a better life. Wherever they come from, stand with refugees.

Caravan is the third single from the Borracho LP Pound of Flesh, out now on Kozmik Artifactz.

Order now at https://borracho.bandcamp.com

We haven’t seen too many stages lately, but we’ve been hard at work writing and recording our next album. Most of it has already been tracked, and it’ll be wrapped up in the next few months. No projected release info yet, but stay tuned! We may have a couple other tricks up our sleeve between now and then.

Borracho is:
Steve Fisher – Lead Guitar & Vocals
Tim Martin – Bass
Mario Trubiano – Drums

Borracho, Pound of Flesh (2021)

Borracho on Facebook

Borracho on Twitter

Borracho on Bandcamp

Borracho website

Kozmik Artifactz website

Kozmik Artifactz on Facebook

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Xtian Pandtle of Sorge

Posted in Questionnaire on March 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

sorge

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended 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: Xtian Pandtle of Sorge

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

Sound creators and live experience curators. Some of us happen to be musicians. All of us have long been fascinated by sound/emotions and we started Sorge as an interpersonal project, so being able to play shows and record actual songs has been an experience we’re all thankful for. When you get down to it, some of us were sad a few years ago and also liked large amps.

Describe your first musical memory.

I personally come from young, X’er parents and I was born in the early ’90s, so grunge and other alt rock stuff was always playing in my house. Something off of In Utero was dubbed “the run around” song in my young life, as I would just go nuts running in a circle to it. Live music speaking, first concert was the Beach Boys, one of the few shows that Brian Wilson played with them during that time, which I was WAY too young to properly appreciate. Youth is wasted on the young.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Playing live shows is always incredible, but tbh, its all so stimulating that everything runs together in my head. So I’m going to demure and say it’s a tie between hitting the peak of a particularly great warehouse rave and crying during Tony Levin’s solo version of the “Moonchild” theme a few years ago.

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

Every load-in, my belief that everyone, at base, has a good heart is put to the test.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Personal development for the artists and, ideally, for their audience as well. Music is an alchemy, combining different sorts of phenomena into a cohesive whole which transcends the sum of its parts. As such, there’s a feedback loop between personal intentionality and artistic output. One motivates the other and vice versa, meaning that music is a microcosm in which we can explore the inner tensions that lay below our everyday, personal existences. I think that’s pretty cool.

How do you define success?

Loosing >$1k annually on artistic projects. Jk, success is a lie fed to us by an exploitative industry now in its dying days. Just do your thing and enjoy your time.

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

The slow but steady deterioration of communal relationships coupled with a rise of professional nihilism during my brief time on this earth. I also grew up on the early internet, so lots of “can’t unsee.” That being said, my perspective is that it’s better to stare into the abyss than to pretend that there is no abyss, so I’m thankful for everything I’ve seen/experienced.

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

We’re all really interested in multimedia and weird instrumentation, so creating some music videos and atmospheric interludes which correspond is something we’re all interested in.

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

Demonstrate the radical care that is at the basis of all our experiences (i.e. sorge).

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

ELDEN RING ELDEN RING ELDEN RING ELDEN RING (x9000)

https://www.facebook.com/sorgedc
https://sorgedc.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/sorgedc

Sorge, Sorge EP (2020)

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Caustic Casanova Complete Work on New Album; More Touring Announced

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

On this very evening, Caustic Casanova will begin a steady stream of shows that takes them through to the holidays next month. There’s a Thanksgiving break, which is fair enough, and then they wrap of Dec. 19 in Florida. Even as they go, they’ve added shows, so yes, this is very much in the spirit of a return-to-form for the band.

Further good news — though perhaps more abstract at least for now — comes with word that they’ve finished their next album for release through Magnetic Eye Records in 2022 as the follow-up to 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here). No title, exact release date, art or audio yet, but hey, it’s good to know such a thing exists, obscure on the horizon as it may be.

I’ll spare you — THIS TIME! — the wax poetry about how good Caustic Casanova are or about how you should buy their self-made limited edition live tapes or their t-shirts or whatever else they’ve got going, whether you do in-person or through their Bandcamp linked below. But consider such wax poetry strongly implied just the same. Something tells me there will be plenty more opportunities to dig in.

From the PR wire:

caustic casanova tour

CAUSTIC CASANOVA finish next album and announce US shows for November & December 2021

CAUSTIC CASANOVA reveal today that the recording of their new album is complete. As the record enters preparations for a 2022 release, there will be a chance to catch a preview of the new material as the band embarks on several weeks of shows across the USA this November and December 2021. The road rage kicks off in style on November 11 at Mr. Small’s Fun House in Millvale, PA (US), and after wrecking venues across America, the final curtain for this run will fall in Gainesville at the Wooly on December 19. Please see below for a complete list of all confirmed dates.

CAUSTIC CASANOVA comment: “We can hardly wait to finally hit the road for the first time in almost two years”, writes bass player and singer Francis Beringer. “This tour is going to be quite the sonic journey. We’re bringing out some of our longest and most challenging songs, some old and reworked, some new, a special cover, and a preview of our upcoming 2022 album. Every night will be a super proggy, sludgy and noisy roll of the dice featuring some of the best heavy rock bands in the midwest and south!”

The Washington D.C. based stoner/punk/sludge/noise/riff-rockers (take your pick) will be touring in support of their 2019 album “God How I Envy the Deaf”. Please see below for details.

Buy link: http://lnk.spkr.media/caustic-casanova-god-how

11 NOV 2021 Millvale, PA (US) Mr. Small’s Fun House
12 NOV 2021 Melvindale, MI (US) Parts and Labor
13 NOV 2021 Columbus, OH (US) The Spacebar
14 NOV 2021 Cincinnati, OH (US) Northside Tavern
15 NOV 2021 Chicago, IL (US) Beat Kitchen
16 NOV 2021 St. Louis, MO (US) The Sinkhole
19 NOV 2021 Canton, OH (US) Buzzbin
20 NOV 2021 Johnson City, TN (US) The Hideaway
21 NOV 2021 Knoxville, TN (US) Brickyard
22 NOV 2021 Louisville, KY (US) Highlands Tap Room
03 DEC 2021 Washington, DC (US) Pie Shop
08 DEC 2021 Wilmington, NC (US) Reggie’s
09 DEC 2021 North Charleston, SC (US) Tua Lingua
10 DEC 2021 Atlanta, GA (US) 529
11 DEC 2021 Asheville, NC (US) Fleetwood’s
12 DEC 2021 Birmingham, AL (US) Upside Down Plaza
14 DEC 2021 Jacksonville, FL (US) Rain Dogs
16 DEC 2021 Cape Coral, FL (US) Nice Guys
17 DEC 2021 Tampa, FL (US) Hooch and Hive
18 DEC 2021 Orlando, FL (US) Soundbar
19 DEC 2021 Gainesville, FL (US) The Wooly

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/
http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Caustic Casanova, God How I Envy the Deaf (2019)

Caustic Casanova, “Filth Castle/Poor Wigs” Hourglass Session

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