Circus Lupus - Biography
Indie rock history has been kind to Circus Lupus, and rightfully so. The group only existed for three short years but its two full-lengths and scattered singles capture a band working some serious magic. Mining a blasted terrain somewhere between caustic post-hardcore skree and the complexities of math-rock, held together by singer Chris Thomson’s intelligent, pointed rants, Circus Lupus ranks as one of the finest, most incendiary DC post-hardcore bands to have emerged from the Dischord scene.
Former Ignition bassist Chris Thomson met guitarist Chris Hamley, drummer Arika Casebolt and bassist Reg Shrader while at school in Madison, Wisconsin. Thomson took vocal duties and the group formed in the Spring of 1990, allegedly naming the band Circus Lupus in tribute to an SCTV skit. This lineup recorded a 7” on the Cubist Productions label titled Tightrope Walker / Chinese Nitro. The band made a decision to move to DC, Thomson’s hometown, but Schrader chose to remain in Madison.
Once in DC the group recruited ex-Vile Cherubs bassist Seth Lorinzi. Thomson also reconnected with his hometown scene and Circus Lupus signed with Dischord records. Dischord is central to the DC punk and post-punk scene. The label is home to the city’s most forward thinking punk bands, from Minor Threat to Fugazi. It was a perfect fit for Circus Lupus’ brand of fractured, atomized post-hardcore.
The group set to work on its first full-length amidst constant shows and touring. Dischord released Super Genius in 1991. The album is a collection of fierce energy and barely controlled chaos. Taking cues from Fugazi’s sparse hardcore art-rock, Circus Lupus combine math-rock’s rhythmic complexity with riff heavy guitars. The group often sounds like it’s playing against itself, with Beefhartian guitars skittering around throbbing bass and polyrhythmic drumming. The whole thing alternates between riding a skewed groove and threatening to completely fall apart. Add to this Thomson’s confrontational vocal style, somewhere between The Fall’s Mark E. Smith and Iggy Pop, and you’ve got a seriously intense record. Tracks like “Pacifier” and “Mean Hot & Blessed” walk a thin line between fractured noise and punk rock anthem with searing results.
The band released a 7” that same year. Pop Man / Pressure Point was produced by legendary rocker Joan Jett and was one of her first production jobs since working with The Germs in 1979. Circus Lupus continued to tour throughout 1992.
In 1993 the group released its second and final album, Solid Brass. Arguably its finest effort, the record refines and tightens the band’s sound. Casebolt and Lorinzi seem to lock into a telepathic dance, slinging around wildly sharp dynamic shifts over which Hamley’s nervy, pointillist guitar lines and chugging riffs try to find firm footing. “I Always Thought You Were An Asshole” and “Deviant Gesture Catalog” captures this approach perfectly. The band seems to be constantly building to an erratic, frenzied climax. Thomson rides this sonic wave, berating the listener with passionate, raw-throated rants that rage against any injustice he can think to target. He’s perfected his unique delivery here as well, chopping up syllables and stuttering through fragmented lyrical lines. Solid Brass manages to fracture hardcore’s ham-fisted weight and still sound totally heavy.
Constant touring and the normal hardships of being an underground band finally took its toll and Circus Lupus split in the summer of 1993. Hamley, Casebolt and Lorinzi went on to release one record as Antimony and Thomson did the same with a new group called Las Mordidas. A few years later, Thomson and Hamley would come together again in the great band Monorchid.
