Most people are probably sick to death of Brooklyn being a hipster's paradise where dinks with moustaches tatted on their fingers drive fixed-gear bikes to Williamsburg bars to pay $6.50 for a can of PBR. It's no surprise, then, that Caveman can provoke a retching reaction from some as an atmospheric and sorta-psychedelic band who grew up in Brooklyn and who, yikes, admit to participating in drum circles. "We're kind of openly proud of being from here, but I think that it sometimes is looked at in a weird way," frontman Matt Iwanusa tells me over the phone. "There's a lot of things associated with Brooklyn, I guess, because people are here, but there's not a lot of things associated with Brooklyn because people are actually from here."He's got a bit of a point. And frankly, it's pretty hard to hate on Caveman. After 2011's well-received debut Coco Beware (which was recorded in guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti's grandmother's barn attic in New Hampshire), they have without question ramped it up on their self-titled sophomore release. It's out April 2 on Fat Possum. "It felt like we wanted to go really big with the sound, and we were feeling the confidence to go to that place," Iwanusa says. The results are apparent; the sound is more vibrant while retaining a moodiness that recalls mid-period, Wish-era Cure. Citing Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo as inspiration for Coco Beware's "Easy Water," Iwanusa mentions that he likes to add music to existing imagery that floats around in his head.
That's cool and all, but what about those drum circles? "It sounds cliché, but a few of the songs on the first album, 'Easy Water' included, and some of the songs on the new album, we did all of the drummers in a room, all playing different things, and recorded it and used that as the base for the song."
>> MICHAELCHRISTOPHER22@GMAIL.COM
CAVEMAN + COMPUTER MAGIC :: THE SINCLAIR, 52 CHURCH ST, CAMBRIDGE :: FEBRUARY 27 :: 7 PM :: 18+ :: $15 :: 617.547.5200 OR BOWERYBOSTON.COM
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