King Caesar

by Chaz Thorndike

Somewhere between straight forward, fuck off rock and roll and a ’90s version of 70’s fuck off punk, there is a band called King Caesar. When asked to clarify the identity crisis I was putting them through because of my own ineptitude at boxing them into a single word description,Vinny, the bassist, occasional guitarist, occasional singer and guy who’s phone number I had replied, “You know, I believe it to be a culmination of all things we, as individuals and as a collective human consciousness are and aspire to be.” My pen hovered impotently over the two words “punk” and “rock.” I was kinda hoping just to circle one of them and get on with it. I thanked him for his time and hung up.

Seeing as there are only five tracks on the self-titled release (Strange, I have two other self-titled demos from them already. I told you they’re confusing!), I’ll take each song one by one. “Requirements” is a sparse, noisy-punk tune that winds down to “aaaarg” at the end. “Othello” starts as a garage pop ditty that jumps into a muddy, noise rage then slides into a chugging chant. “Cadillac of Love” is pure ’70s punk. Complete with terrible-sounding guitars, ranting, unintelligible lyrics, a sloppy Sex Pistols solo and not a mention of the actual song title (unless the “Da-da-da-da-da-dada,da-da” is it). Both “Not about You” and “Friend” keep slipping from a nice, twisted rock to noisy, meandering rants and ugly guitar sounds.

King Caesar keeps popping up on good bills, but despite good intentions, I’ve missed them. It’s only a matter of time, though.