| Caroliner | |
| Origin: | San Francisco, United States |
| Genre: | Experimental, noise, industrial, bluegrass |
| Years Active: | 1983– |
| Label: | Subterranean Records 'Nuf Sed BullsHit |
| Current Members: | Unknown |
Caroliner is a music group formed in San Francisco in 1983.[1] [2] Described by critics as "industrial-bluegrass," the group uses instruments from bluegrass and rock traditions, as well as homemade electronics and other modified instruments. In their live performances, band members play characters in an other-worldly pageantry, wearing elaborate homemade costumes and performing on a stage decorated with drawings and set pieces, all covered in day-glo paint. The band has toured Europe,[3] Japan,[4] and North America.[5]
Caroliner's members are anonymous, but use aliases (Obsidian Skeleton, The Sickwood Adventure, and Cottypearile Weddingforke).[6] The aliases are only used by them during interviews with the band; no credits appear on any Caroliner records. In her autobiography, cartoonist Dame Darcy writes about her membership in the band in the late 1980s/early 1990s.[7]
The Caroliner band name changes from album to album, and tour to tour. For instance, the band's name on their 1990 album I'm Armed With Quarts of Blood is Caroliner Rainbow Stewed Angel Skins, whereas on 1995's Sell Heal Holler the band is called Caroliner Rainbow Customary Relaxation Of The Shale. The reason for this is unknown but could be connected to personnel changes within the band.
When referring to the band as a whole, the Caroliner name stands alone (rather than the oft-used 'Caroliner Rainbow').
Jamie Rake, in Sound Choice, described Caroliner's music as follows:
"Caroliner is the sound of atrophy, the noise of salvation and damnation's collision in a parallel dimension to purgatory, the random rumbling of the bowels of the universe turned inside out to become a semblance of music complete with lyrical vantage points so convolutedly arcane to make comprehending them impossible, save for the few gnostically inclined aspirants bent in similar psychic permutations."[8]
Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted:
"On top of the visual extravagance, Caroliner has somehow forged an original musical style. The songs typically fuse together a grinding, relentless bass line, country-ish banjo strummings, spastic vocals ranging across several octaves, a wheezing organ drone, and screeching violin tremolos. Despite the splintered aesthetic, a lumbering grandeur gathers ...... Space does not permit a description of the lyrics, which purport to interpret the prophecies of a 19th-century Wisconsin cow."[9]
In May, 2011, the band received notice on the Fox network cable program "Red Eye," where the host, Greg Gutfeld, lauded the group's work (between 9 and 13 minutes into the clip cited), calling it "brilliant" and "violently obscure."[10]
Carlo McCormick in Reflex issue 3 said his copy of "Hernia Milkqueen 'The Rear End Hernia Puppet Show'" came with a "ripped poster for the band's show at the Kennel Club; a dingy piece of Christmas wrapping; a Maxwell video cassette record-the-action sticker that presumes the 49'ers make it to the '88 Superbowl (which they never did); some painterly gesture on paper that must've been art; a hideous thrift-shop bracelet; a few xerox pages of obscure press clippings and cryptic, hallucinatory stream-of-coniuosness interviews; a half dozen pages torn out of a book called "The Strange Ways of God"; pages 342 and 348 from an anonymous porn novel; more art, bits of stained tissue; and a lyrics page almost as ill as it is illegible." McCormick says "...if dead cockroaches could rock, Caroliner Rainbow is what they'd sound like."
To date the band has released 13 full-length albums. Their first two albums were released and/or distributed by Subterranean Records. The following five albums were released by Nuf Sed. Since 1995, all of Caroliner's albums have been self-released by BullsHit. Caroliner's music has also appeared on various 7" singles, EPs, split releases, and compilations.
Caroliner's album covers are assembled by hand. Drawings and calligraphy are screen-printed or photocopied onto various materials, which are then glued onto a makeshift record sleeve. Sleeve materials vary (two copies of the same record will seldom be identical), and have included fabric, diaper disposal bags, old record sleeves (spray-painted beyond recognition) and pizza boxes.
Studio albums
7" Singles