Caspian (band)

Caspian is an American post-rock band from Beverly, Massachusetts, United States.

History

Early history: 2003–2004

Caspian loosely formed in Autumn of 2003 in Beverly, Massachusetts,^[1] developing material through the first year of its existence, recording a demo in May 2004 and performing a small number of shows in late 2004 and early 2005, including support for the Japanese post-rock band Mono.^[2] The band's first performance took place at The Pickled Onion in Beverly, Massachusetts on August 26, 2004. At the time the band had not yet chosen the name Caspian and were looking for a vocalist.

You Are The Conductor: 2005–2006

In January 2005, the band signed with Dopamine Records, releasing a debut EP, You Are the Conductor in November 2005.^[3] This was followed, in January 2006, with the band's first tour of the Northeast comprising four dates in New York, D.C. and Pittsburgh. In April and May 2006, the band embarked on its first full tour of the USA, reaching to the west coast and back. A hand pressed, limited edition (100 total) tour EP was released by the band in September 2006 on their second full tour of the United States.

The Four Trees: 2007–2008

Caspian guitarist Philip Jamieson performing in Tilburg, Netherlands

Over the course of 2006, the band developed material for a debut album, recording with Ethan Dussault again in August 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the newly renovated New Alliance Audio. Released on Dopamine Records on April 10, 2007, their debut album, The Four Trees, continued their positive exposure to a growing underground of Post-Rock fans. The album was re-released in Europe by Make My Day Records in July 2008. Later that year, they recorded a split 7" with fellow Massachusetts band Constants.

Once again Caspian embarked on a three-month-long coast to coast tour of the United States to support the release. After learning that founding member, guitarist Calvin Joss, could no longer fulfill touring duties, Erin Burke-Moran of The Fly-Agaris Sky, was initially recruited to tour in place of Joss, but became a full-time member immediately following their 2007 Spring US Tour.^[4]

Tertia: 2009–2011

Now officially a 5 piece band, Caspian released a follow-up to their debut called Tertia in Europe on 7 August 2009 and in the US on 15 September 2009.^[5] Caspian once again recorded the album in February 2007 at New Alliance Audio with Ethan Dussault.

Caspian performing at Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, October 2010

To tour the album upon its release, Caspian enlisted Washington DC area guitarist, Jonny Ashburn, and Austin, TX bassist, Jon McMahan to assist. "Tertia" was supported by two massive European tours (Fall of 2009 and Spring 2010) and a two-month North American tour (March/April 2010) that included a supporting slot for Los Angeles-based Post-Rock outfit, Red Sparowes and Brooklyn indie rockers, Fang Island. In July 2010 the band played their first ever shows in China. The 2 date "Asian Tour" was July 16 at the Hidden Agenda Live House and the second was on the 17th of July in Guangzhou, as part of the Qiangyuan Music Festival. The band toured the US in September and October with their 22nd October show being at the Old South Church in Boston. The show was recorded and highlights from the show were released on an EP titled "Live at the Old South Church" in January 2012. The tour continued to Europe in November and December playing support with God is an Astronaut.In 2010 alone the band performed close to 150 concerts in 33 countries on 3 continents. The band played their final concert of 2010 at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge as part of the "Last Night on Earth", the 8th of the series, with Constants, Irepress and Moving Mountains.

Waking Season: 2011–2014

In a band blog update in early January 2011 the band said that most of their time over the next year would be spent writing and recording their 3rd full-length album. They performed at the 2011 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas and played an 8-day European tour in April 2011 visiting Russia, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands including a headline performance at the Dunk! Festival in Zottegem, Belgium.

Around this same time the band's label The Mylene Sheath announced plans for the first ever Caspian live album release. Songs taken from the October 2010 Old South Church show will be pulled together for a limited vinyl release of 1000 copies (in various colors). Within two days, two of the versions were sold out.

During the summer of 2011, Caspian refrained from live performances and focused exclusively on writing new material. The band enlisted the services of Matt Bayles to co-produce, engineer, and mix the record, which was recorded at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA in January 2012 for 3 weeks. Additional recording and production occurred in February 2012 at Radar Studios in Clinton, CT. The album was mixed at Red Room Studios in Seattle by Matt Bayles with the band for 10 days in May, 2012. On July 9, 2012 the band announced by their site/Facebook/Twitter the album title would be "Waking Season". The release date was later confirmed to be September 21, 2012, sold via Triple Crown Records.^[6] A week before the album's US release Spin.com posted a full stream of the album and called it "The Post Rock Album of the Year".

The band played a few shows before starting a 16 show run in support of Minus the Bear and Cursive. Upon completion of that string of dates, Caspian headed to Europe touring from October 10, through November 20th, and completed a full US headline tour in February and March 2013 with support from junius and Native.

On May 26 the band opened up day two of the first Boston Calling Music Festival on Boston's City Hall Plaza, playing the main stage. The band played a short and spirited set and it also marked the first time the band played with six members on stage. The bill was curated by The National (who headlined) also appearing on this day were Ra Ra Riot, Of Monsters and Men and The Walkmen amongst others. The band followed up the outdoor show with a free concert in their hometown of Beverly on July 13.

On August 28, 2013, the band announced via Facebook that bassist Chris Friedrich had died.^[7] He was 32 years old.

For much of the month of October 2013 the band supported HIM on a European tour. They subsequently returned to the US for a string of dates with 65daysofstatic as co-headliners.

During this tour the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled "Hymn For The Greatest Generation", containing three new songs, as well as a demo and two remixes of songs from Waking Season. Pitchfork began to stream the title track on October 9, 2013, prior to the EP's release on November 11, 2013. "Hymn For The Greatest Generation" was the final recording on which bassist Chris Friedrich appeared, though it was released after his death.

The album "Waking Season" was later given an Australia / New Zealand release through Hobbledehoy Record Co in January 2014.^[8]

In March 2014 the band did two shows (NYC 3/1 and Cambridge MA 3/2) before departing for a tour of Asia and Australia. The 14 show tour had the band playing shows in the Philippines, Singapore, six shows in China, Taiwan and a five shows in Australia.

October 18, 2014 would become an important date in the history of the band. First, the city of Beverly declared it to be "Caspian Day" with an official notice from the city Mayor. Later that evening the band played a special 10th Anniversary show at the historic Larcom Theater in Beverly. The band played a two-hour set for the sold out audience that spanned their career touching on all EP's and full-length recordings. The encore began with the band's first ever live attempt at "Hymn for the Greatest Generation". To make it special a four piece string section was invited on stage to accompany the band. To ring in the future the band ended the set with an untitled/unheard new song, which would be released almost two years later via 8 Inch single called "Castles High, Marble Bright".

Dust and Disquiet: 2015–

Caspian performing at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 23, 2016

On January 14 the band posted a two-minute clip to social media indicating "Live From The Larcom" was coming soon. Blu-ray was the format chosen for the release of the show and the physical copies began to arrive to the fans in late June. Always having the fans in mind the band set up a free screening of the Blu-ray at the Cabot Theater in their hometown of Beverly, MA. The all ages/free screening was July 19.

The band set to work on their 4th LP in March and April. In late April and early May the band hosted "listening parties" where they loaded up 30 iPods with the new record and through ticket sales on their merchandise page, invited fans to show up with headphones, talk about the record and go experience the album as they see fit. The first listening party was held at a park on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, there were additional listening parties played in Europe in April and May 2015.

On June 26, Noisey premiered the first single, Sad Heart of Mine, off the upcoming record "Dust & Disquiet".^[9] On September 13, 2015 the band appeared on "Boston Emissions", a radio program airing on 100.7 WZLX in Boston. All six members were in studio for the interview and a number of the new songs were played from the forthcoming record.

Dust & Disquiet, the band's fourth full-length LP, was released worldwide on September 25, 2015. Along with the single, the band announced US and Canada tour dates for the fall, 2015. For the first time on a Caspian release there are vocals used on "Dust & Disquiet" which breaks their habit of making only instrumental music. ^[10]

By the end of the first four months of 2016 the band had played over 50 shows. In February (3rd to 13th) the band did a US tour with Defeater. Upon completion for the February shows the band headed to Asia, where they performed a dozen total shows in China, Taiwan and the band's first-ever shows in Japan. Once back in the US the band headed out on tour in support of Underoath. The tour opened in Houston on March 21 and concluded in Orlando Florida on April 24, with 29 total shows played. Many of the shows were sold out before Caspian announced they would be the support act. The tour was a success and Caspian continued to gain fans with each performance.

After much of the summer was taken for personal time the band headed back to Europe in mid August and played a series of headlining dates and appeared at 5 different festivals. On October 20th the band released a short film that was accompanied by a new song "Castles High, Marble Bright". The track made its first live appearance almost two years to the day prior. The band, when doing their 10th Anniversary show at the Larcom Theater, closed the show with this track, which some fans took to calling "Joy". Alongside the video the band announced its plan to release the track via "8 Inch" and it would be sold on their tour as well as available online both digitally and in physical form. On October 22nd the band hit the road in North America once more. The 22 date tour started in Washington DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel and ended on November 19th a Bar Le Ritz, in Montreal,Canada. All shows had The Appleseed Cast in the support role. On the November 1, 2016 stop of the tour the band was recorded performing live at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, CA to be later featured on Last Call with Carson Daly. The segment aired on November 15th in the US and it featured "Sad Heart of Mine" as well as a shortened version of "Arcs of Command" in the latter part of the program. This was the bands first appearance on late night television. The band appeared for a second time on the show in February 2017. Recorded at the same venue the second airing of the show had an abridged performance of "Castles High, Marble Bright".

On 18, February 2017 the band played their first show in Mexico. The band was part of the "Forever Alone Festival" that took place at Foro Indie Rocks in Mexico City. Other bands on the bill included This Will Destroy You Ttng, The Polar Dream, Mylets and many more. The band was then slated to support Katatonia on their 28 US city tour. The tour opened in Washington D.C. on 16, March and concluded on 22nd of April when both bands appeared at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester MA. No sooner did the band complete the tour with Katatonia when they played two additional shows in China. April 29th the band played the Strawberry Festival in Shanghai and then Beijing for a headline show at Modernsky Lab on May 1st.

Style and Influences

Members of Caspian have said they were heavily influenced by former tourmates The Appleseed Cast, particularly the Low Level Owl albums during their inception. Other oft stated influences include Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Tool, Led Zeppelin, Massive Attack and Godspeed You! Black Emperor,

While their earlier work is largely considered to be fairly typical "twinkle" post rock in the vein of Explosions in the Sky, starting with Tertia Caspian began to experiment more with electronic elements, while also moving towards a more dense and heavier riffing style. With subsequent releases, Caspian have experimented further stylistically as well as with timbre, incorporating synthesizers, pedal steel guitar (most notably on "Rioseco"), and even vocals.

While they are generally considered to be a post rock band, Caspian have also been described as post metal and even shoegaze.

Discography

Studio albums

• The Four Trees (2007)
• Tertia (2009)
• Waking Season (2012)
• Dust and Disquiet (2015)

Other Releases

• You Are the Conductor (2005)
• Tour EP (2006)
• Split With Constants (2008)
• Live at Old South Church (2012)
• Hymn for the Greatest Generation (2013)
• Castles High, Marble Bright (2016)

Members

• Philip Jamieson - guitar, keyboards, synthesizers (2004–present)
• Calvin Joss - guitar, pedal steel guitar (2004–present)
• Joe Vickers - drums (2004–present)
• Erin Burke-Moran - guitar (May 2007–present)
• Jonny Ashburn - guitar (August 2009–present)
• Jani Zubkovs - bass guitar (2013–present)

Former

• Chris Friedrich - bass (2004-2013; his death)
• Jon McMahan - bass (touring only, August 2009—March 2013)

See also

• List of post-rock bands

References

External links

• Official web site
• MySpace page for Caspian