HARK!
I hear…MNFB (my new favorite band)...
And that would be: Black Caesar Soul Club.
Haven’t heard of them?
No worries, this dynamic duo is decidedly under-the-radar; a Zoom with HARK Valley a few weeks ago was only the second interview this Phoenix band has done (the first was with a Tucson publication).
If you like Jimi, Curtis, Sly and Lenny–this "club" is for you, as Black Caesar Soul Club is simultaneously new and old, rock and soul.
A powerhouse duo: Black Caesar Soul Club
If you can picture Motown partying with Seventies rock–tune in and dig it.
The band is deceptively simple, just Aaron Allblack on guitars and vocals backed by drummer Marty Goldmill.
In this case, simple is good. Real good.
This might be my favorite duo since the Helio Sequence. When I saw the Portland-based Helio Sequence live in the early 2000s, my head was ringing with brutal, thundering rock. In its stellar recordings, that Sub Pop band has evolved into psychedelic rock, with powerhouse ballads like Keep Your Eyes Ahead and Lately.
Almost nobody knew about Helio Sequence when I stumbled on them. I had just written about their Sub Pop debut for the Seattle Times, then heard them as the opening band for a mid-week show at Sit & Spin, a nightclub/laundromat in Belltown.
Boosted by Sub Pop, Helio Sequence never became huge but gained a solid following and huge critical acclaim. Billboard editor Jonathan Cohen dubbed them “fantastic,” and a Pitchfork reviewer called their 2008 recording “one of the year's pleasant surprises.”
Will Black Caesar Soul Club roar out of the Valley and score fans, a label and loving critics?
Let's hope so...
After a Zoom interview with HARK Valley, the duo shared its newly-minted, four-song EP.
It’s called Propers, and it’s brilliant, with four top-shelf songs.
Solution is a tight, scratch-guitar update of Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
As Allblack wails:
When you say my name
My world bursts into flames…
Evolution this is an evolution
Takes place whenever you’re around
And it’s driving me insane
Your elocution, your elocution
and your tone of voice
let’s me know
That crazy is in your veins.
…
In conclusion
If you stayed I might have
Blown my brains away
Can’t Sleep also references being driven crazy, over crazy-good, here with Allblack emotionally thrashing:
Drinking the night away
Would drive a man insane
I played all my records
Til they all sound the same
…
No rest for my mind
how I'm supposed to
make it through this hell?
Rock n Rolla is straight ahead, hammer-drum, tuned-down rock jam. This one will have crowds dancing at shows, no doubt.
Stroll sounds like an undiscovered Hendrix cut.
The main question: When do we get to hear these killer songs live?
“We’re working on it,” Allblack said.
Black Caesar Soul Club hasn’t played since a March 31 show at the Yucca Tap Room, with previous shows in March at the Lost Leaf and November at the Valley Bar.
During the HARK Valley Zoom, Allblack and Goldmill laughed over the “crazy story” of how they met in passing five years ago at The Kettle Black, a downtown watering hole.
“I was walking out of a bar and Marty was walking into a bar. I was looking for a drummer for about a year…I had on a Thin Lizzy T-shirt. He said, ‘Great band.’ I said, ‘Who you tellin’?’
“Then I asked him, ‘Do you play? Everyone plays guitar, so I figured it would be that. But he says, ‘Drums.’”
Bingo, Allblack thought; they exchanged numbers.
Shortly after, they got together with their instruments–it was love at first jam.
They discovered a shared affinity not just for that Irish hard-rock band (best known for The Boys are Back in Town), but English rock bands that were in turn influenced by American soul-rock.
“We’re not imitating The Beatles or Led Zeppelin,” Allblack said, “and we would never compare ourselves to Jimi or Curtis Mayfield…”
But, hey, they have that sound.
“And we’re Black,” the singer-guitarist added, with a chuckle.
In Phoenix, Black Caesar Soul Club is something of a rarity–at most of their shows, they might be the only non-white folks in the club.
The irony is that, though rock music is white-dominated, it stems from the blues and, later, soul.
“Sixties soul is so important to our sound,” Allblack said. “We play rock and roll–but musically, if it’s a pie chart, it’s 33 percent rock and roll; the other 66 percent is soul, funk, hip hop. That informs our take on the music we play.”
Goldmill punched that:
“We want to play rock and roll–we want it to hit you,” the drummer said. “At the same time, we want to have a swing.”
Check them out and you’ll see what he’s talking about:
BCSC links
