Tag: Body Double Milk Fed

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by founding member multi-instrumentalist Candace Lazarou and currently featuring Noah Adams (bass), Silver Shadows’ Chase Kamp (drums), Jascha Ephraim (lead guitar) and Mel Weikart (keyboard), Oakland-based punk act Body Double can trace its origins to a period of intense grief and transition for its founding member: Lazarou’s previous band, underground noise rock act Mansion went through a acrimonious breakup in 2016, months before the tragic Ghost Ship warehouse fire. Simultaneously, Lazarou began rethinking and then disentangling herself from longtime personal relationships and with drugs.

Lazarou withdrew into her bedroom, 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 in Mansion, Lazarou desired and savored creative control, indulging in dramatic arrangement and hooks — and then she found a collaborator with Noah Adams, the band’s bassist and cowriter.

Slated for a September 18, 2020 release through Zum Records, the Oakland punk quintet’s produced full-length debut Milk Fed can trace its origins back to sessions with co-producer Jason Kick at Tunnel Vision beginning around 2017. Lazarou played most of the instruments on the album with Silver Shadows‘ Chase Kamp and Mansion’s Jeff Cook sharing drum duties. Last year, the band began playing live shows and expanded to its current lineup.

“The Floating Hand,” Milk Fed’s first single (and coincidentally, the band’s debut) is an angular No Wave-like take on post punk that seethes and bristles with the unease of someone, who has long been a square peg that has never quite fit in anywhere, ever. And while reminding me a bit of The Mallard‘s Finding Meaning in Deference, the track is fueled by lived-in personal experience.

“‘The Floating Hand’ is generally about competition, and your options for reacting to it,” Candace Lazarou explains in press notes. “I grew up in a few different countries because my dad was a Marine, and each move felt interplanetary: the language changed, what was good and bad changed, even the bugs crawling on the ground changed.  I felt at odds with conservative military culture and run-of-the-mill high school viciousness, and fantasized about one day finding a safe haven in punk and underground music.  It turns out that even amongst weirdos you’ll still see people undercut each other, and you might be a maladjusted alien regardless of scenery.  I wrote this song about a musician I thought was particularly nasty, and it ended up being about myself, which is what happens whenever I try to write a dis track.”