Brooklyn’s The Subjects (QRO spotlight on) – formed between two high school students and two high school teachers – were always tricky to pin-down, genre-wise. Young’uns Matt Iwanusa & Jimmy Carbonetti have kept that up in their new band, the five-person Caveman, with the hard to pigeonhole CoCo Beware, which mixes harmony and drumming, relax and ominous, into something more.
The light harmonies and tribal drumming of opener “A Country’s King of Dreams” is an interesting way to begin a record, but it’s a good marker of what is to come on CoCo. Caveman focus on high harmonies with ‘empty room’ drumming, leaving the guitars and whatnot to play more of a supporting role. This can go in a sixties harmony-pop way, such as in early numbers “Decide” and “My Time”, or foreboding harmony-loss, like on “Great Life” or “Thankful”. It can play relaxed – sometimes too relaxed – or even country (see haunt-trot closer “My Room”), but is always interesting.
CoCo Beware is, admittedly, a record that is more interesting than it is enjoyable, as the style is one that the ear is unused to. Caveman have been getting a good deal of indie-attention – just signed to Fat Possum – so they’ve got room to grow into their new sound.
MP3 Stream: “Thankful“
