Oakland-based punk outfit Body Double — currently, founding member, multi-instrumentalist Candace Lazarou, Noah Adams (bass), Chase Kamp (drums), Aaron Diko (keys) and Joel Cusumano (guitar) — can trace its origins back to a period of intense grief and transition for its founder, Candace Lazarou: Her pervious band Mansion split up in an acrimonious fashion back in 2016, a few months before the tragic Ghost Ship warehouse fire. Simultaneously Lazarou began rethinking and then disentangling herself from longtime personal relationship and from drugs.
She withdrew into her bedroom and began creating material about intimacy and consent in the style of a drag mass attended by Brian Eno and Al Jourgensen. After being confined to vocal duties with Mansion, understandably, Lazarou desired and savored creative control, indulging in dramatic arrangements and hooks. She then found a collaborator in Noah Adams, who also cowrites material.
Around 2019, the band began playing live shows and has played as a quintet and as a quartet at various points. Their full-length debut, 2020’s Milk Fed can be traced back to sessions with co-producer Jason Kick at Tunnel Vision that initially started back in 2017: Lazarou played most of the instruments during those sessions with Kamp and Mansion’s Jeff Cook sharing drum duties.
For obvious reasons, the Oakland-based outfit wasn’t able to tour to support their full-length debut. Voice 2 Skull EP is the follow-up to 2020’s full-length debut and is slated for a July 21, 2023 release. “I just want to be in a band that sounds like Ministry doing Roxy Music covers, or vice versa. I think Voice 2 Skull gets me closer,” Body Double’s Candace Lazarou explains. “I wrote this EP knowing it would be Body Double’s last year as a big five-piece rock n’ roll blob (who can afford that in 2023?) so I tried to MAX OUT musically and emotionally. I’m singing about flames, parasites, long range energy weapons like V2K technology, and long range energy weapons like L-O-V-E.”
The EP’s first single “Carnation Island” is a woozy ripper built around buzzing power chords, industrial pummeling, glistening New Wave-like synths paired with Lazarou’s seemingly disaffected, robotic-like delivery. The result is a song that — to me — brings Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO-era and Freedom of Choice-era DEVO with hints of Ministry.
The Oakland-based outfit will be supporting the EP with a batch of tour dates. You can check the tour dates.
TOUR DATES
July 21 Thee Stork Club – Oakland, CA w/ Candy Whips, Chaki, DJ Albion Junkie
July 22 Que Sera – Long Beach, CA w/ Human Musik, Coleco Club
July 23 Taverna Costera – Las Vegas, NV w/ Spring Breeding
July 25 The Beast – Tempe, AZ w/ Final Gasp, The Sheaves, Jade Helm
July 26 Blondies – Tucson, AZ w/ Spank, Kulululu
July 27 61st st. House – San Diego, CA
July 28 Non Plus Ultra – Los Angeles, CA w/ Prissy Whip, Ms. Lucid
July 30 The Golden Bear – Sacramento, CA w/ Steev & the Bitch Club, El Guapo
July 31 Duffy’s – Chico, CA
Aug 1 Mudville Stadium – Corvallis, OR w/ the Yuvees
Aug 2 Clock-Out Lounge – Seattle, WA w/ Wilting and Lane Lines
Aug 3 The Voyeur – Olympia, WA w/ Debt Rag
Aug 4 No Fun – Portland, OR w/ Mo Troper, The Unseen Ways
Aug 5 Richard’s Goat – Arcata, CA w/ Hudson Glover
