Liquid Casing is a partnership between four musicians from Houston, TX. Inspired by the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Cursive, Mogwai, Russian Circles, and The Mars Volta, Liquid Casing has developed their own sound focused on dynamics, the ebb and flow of song structure, and vibrant rhythm. Liquid Casing’s new album, A Separate|Divide, explores the politics of division and seeks to expose our lack of unity and its consequences. Composed of 9 tracks that sonically weave in and out of each other, a broad picture is painted of Man’s exploitative use of arbitrary divides. While the concepts and lyrics strive to confront the intellect, the music goes straight for the gut.
History:
Liquid Casing was formed in Corpus Christi, TX by Alvaro, Matt, and Sean back in 1992. As a three-piece, we wrote original songs and interspersed them amidst many cover songs. There were few shows, fewer fans, and no deli trays. However, music is a strange creature that lures many into doing its bidding with little material reward. Songs such as Patria O’ Muerte, Che, Come on Inside, and Bass 1959 were insatiably rocked out. Around 1997, Sean departed the band, and the remaining members soldiered on as a two-piece. This was new territory as there was no White Stripes to lead the way. We were now just plain weird. Void Lenses was released in the summer of 1997 on tape (pure analog!) and included 22 songs of horribly wonderous 4 track mayhem. As a two-piece, several rocking shows were notched squarely in our belts. By 1999, our sound and style had become more focused. The song writing was tighter and more elaborate. The sophomore album, Exiting the Infinite Corridor was released in the summer of ’99. We were poor, so the recording was as low budget as a band can get, single takes, no-overdubs, our parent’s stereo equipment, enough said. At this point, our shows started to become more dynamic (Alvaro rolling around on the ground….you get the point), and we started to branch out to other cities.
Around 2000, Alvaro relocated to Houston and Matt went to Austin, and depression set in since no music could be made. However, we perservered and found a way to rock out despite being in separate cities. This work resulted in the album, The Sun…After the Great Uproar, 2001. The album was the first of many concept albums that we would go on to make, this one had to do with technology in a capitalist society. We started playing in both Austin and Houston and in our travels we met Okikiolu. He started playing with us almost instantly and we forged a new sound. While having a sax player in a band has been done before, melding a free jazz/punk rock sound without sounding silly is quite an accomplishment. This sound was debuted on The Campaign (2003), another concept album, this time about war. At the same time we had put together another album of instrumentals called Storm the Palace EP (2004). This was a chance for the band to develop its musical chops. Though it was difficult to record two albums at the same time, it was fun to spread our wings. The other thing that helped is that we put together our own recording studio, Red Flag Studios. This has allowed us to take our time, learn the ins and outs of recording without wasting our money and other people’s time. We also feel obligated to help other young and upcoming bands by recording them and putting out their music. We worked with The Miyagis, Westborn (they’re getting pretty big these days), Death Carpet Trio, and Wu Liao. It’s fun working with other bands, especially using them as our guinea pigs as we unravel twisted cords and weird effect units in the studio. They certainly helped us learn how to record.
Another way to learn how to record is to forget songwriting and just record in the most bizarre means available. We executed this to perfection and it resulted in the How Do You Give A Name to the Unexplainable (2004) album. For the next couple years we rocked out shows and worked on new material which ultimately became An Empty Sparking Light (2007). This album was extremely difficult to conceive and put to tape (we record digital now, but it’s still hip to refer to “tape”). This album was larger in scope involving more musicians and also incorporating recorded interviews into the music. As a concept album, the target this time was the media. An easy target, but still necessary to confront. Once we finished the album, we set out to enlarge our sound, so we teamed up with Jim and somehow along the way we have doubled the size of our happy little band.
In 2009, after many years of steadfast drum-pounding, Matt amicably parted ways with the band. Liquid Casing scoured the Earth in search of anyone who could fit our ecclectic little band. After several months, we found John Pitale knockin’ on our door. Since then, we have been playing shows all over Houston, and working on a new album to be released in Summer of ’13.
So come out and see one of our shows if you get a chance, you might enjoy yourself and roll around on the ground.
