Caveman’s debut album, CoCo Beware, opens with a drum beat that puts you in a trance. It grabs and holds for the entire song, remaining in the background as layered guitars, vocal harmonies and warbling synthesizers are endlessly looped.
The band’s lead singer, Matt Iwanusa, realizes the hypnotic percussion is a major aspect of the band’s presence – which is why he often drums alongside the band’s main drummer in its live shows, giving concerts a double dose of percussion.
“It’s my favorite thing,” Iwanusa said. “I mean, it adds a lot of energy because people can relate to drums, and they can relate to vocals, so we’re just trying to make sure those two elements are strong.”
Iwanusa’s airy vocals and frenetic drumming will both be on display when Caveman takes its live show to the Red Palace in Washington tonight.
Caveman’s sound is full of soothing harmonies, and Iwanusa says the record has a very “relaxed feel” and “easygoing vibe.” But the music also has a moody, alluring appeal that differentiates it from an average bubbly, optimistic harmony-based band, which earns it comparisons to Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes. The music is just as hypnotizing and mysterious as it is happy.
The darker tone of some of the music is just “something you grow into,” Iwanusa said. He mentioned movie soundtracks from the past 20 years as having a major influence on the album, and it shows, especially on “Vampirer.” The track is an instrumental with a broad, cinematic feel, building a melody and setting the scene for album standout “Old Friend.”
Caveman has found success with its “dark and vibey” sound, as Iwanusa describes it, primarily through word of mouth – first locally in New York, then nationally.
“It was catching on just through the Internet, and telling people and playing shows, ” Iwanusa said. “And all these people were just hearing it through that and they kept telling more people. It was exciting that, you know, the old-school style of finding out about something still works today. Just word of mouth and people being loyal to what you’re doing. It’s pretty exciting on that front, just because it’s amazing how much that has been the main thing.”
The band members all were part of various groups in the New York music scene, and played their first show together opening for White Rabbits in January 2010. They scored the gig based on the strength of just a few demos.
“We didn’t have enough songs we’d written yet, but they gave us a show so we wrote three new songs,” Iwanusa said about that first show.
Since then, Caveman has crafted 10 songs for a debut album that is making the rounds in the indie rock world and developing the band a loyal following. Now, the group is touring the country and gaining new fans and fame (praise from the New York Times and NPR), all the while trying to keep each other happy and upbeat.
“We talk a lot about band morale, trying to keep that high,” Iwanusa said. “Whatever that is, if it means to, you know, splurge a little bit on something to make everybody feeling good, that’s what we do to always keep the positive vibes on tour.”
Caveman will play the Red Palace tonight. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
offitzer@umdbk.com
