unveil new video single
‘A Bailar Con Cuarentena’
taken from forthcoming album
“Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”
Can I play with madness? CAUSTIC CASANOVA sure do! Tongue-in-cheek yet inherently serious, eclectic to the core yet irresistibly catchy, the wicked Washington D.C.-based riff-rockers serve up a cunning video clip with their new single ‘A Bailar Con Cuarentena’ (“To Dance With Quarantine”). The track is taken from the four piece‘s forthcoming album “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, which is slated for release on October 7.
CAUSTIC CASANOVA comment: “Our first song with a title entirely en español, ‘A Bailar Con Cuarentena’, is one of the weirdest Caustic Casanova creations ever and it has a fairly interesting history”, bass player and singer Francis Beringer teases. “As far as I am aware of, it’s the first Caustic Casanova song that has come into existence with its lyrics written 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 at every moment firing on all cylinders, rhythmically speaking. 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 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 tracks after nearly a year of separation from us, he unleashed his crackling fuzz and octave-down fury all over it. He turned it into one of the heaviest and most over the top Caustic Casanova songs ever. 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.”
Regarding the lyrics: “The lyrics were, at first, about something else – and the title was about dancing with a shark as opposed to dancing with the quarantine as it says now”, Beringer continues. “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 before the outbreak 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 words that I’ve ever written.”
About the video: “The music video comes as another collaboration with our long time artist, the amazing Jase Harper, and it represents our first foray into combined animation and live action”, the bass player and vocalist writes. “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 fitting representation of all of us coming out of quarantine, learning to become real humans and functioning musicians, and music fans again.”
Video credits
Directed and animated by Jase Harper (Jaseharper.com)
Videography and headbanging by Chris Joao
Tracklist
1. Anubis Rex
2. Lodestar
3. A Bailar Con Cuarentena
4. Shrouded Coconut
5. Bull Moose against the Sky
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, CAUSTIC CASANOVAplant 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.
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.
After a number of proudly DIY releases, CAUSTIC CASANOVA caught the attention of KYLESA, who released the band’s third full-length “Breaks” through their own label. Having brought their pure rock fury to the riff-thirsty masses on more than a dozen full and regional US tours, CAUSTIC CASANOVA applied their road-honed chops to bang out a heavier, more joyously swaggering set of righteous songs for 2019’s triumphant album “God How I Envy the Deaf”.
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 CASANOVArecord 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 travellers 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!
Release date: October 7, 2022
Line-up
Francis Beringer – vocals, bass
Stefanie Zænker – vocals, drums, percussion
Andrew Yonki – guitar
Jake Kimberley – guitar
Style: Stoned Psych Sludge
Recorded & engineered by J. Robbins at Magpie Cage, Baltimore, MD, USA
Produced by J. Robbins and Caustic Casanova
Mixed by Andrew Schneider at Acre Audio, Patterson, NY, USA
Mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio, Cornwall, NY, USA
Artwork & Layout by Scott Partridge
Pre-sale linkhttp://lnk.spkr.media/caustic-casanova-2022
Available formats
“Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” is available as Digisleeve CD, on transparent blue vinyl, and as coloured vinyl LP.
Links
www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
www.instagram.com/causticcasanova
