Feature: Carissa's Wierd we miss you

This article kicks off a series of features on some of uberpingpong's favourite bands. Unlike many, we aim to delve deep into their backgrounds and come back to the surface with something more than just knowledge and an expanded understanding of what makes them tick. More precisely we will pull out new music they have influenced or that they have gone on to make. Sounds complicated hey? Well trust us, all will become apparent...

Carissa's Wierd: We miss you

In 1995 the US city of Seattle was suffering from a nasty hangover. The city’s music scene for the 10 years prior had been all flannel shirts, long hair and grunge rock. But calmly, in the back streets of rock-central two like-minded individuals Mat Brooke and Jenn Ghetto were creating something that was to be the complete antithesis of the mainstream grunge rock sound. It was almost as if what they were playing existed specifically to sooth the hangovers of these grunge heads who had been jolted by the death of their leader Kurt Cobain one year previous.

They called themselves 'Carissa's Wierd' (deliberately misspelled). The band's line-up changed throughout its existence but mainstays in the band-included violinist Sarah Standard, drummer (and later bassist) Ben Bridwell, drummer Sera Cahoone, drummer Creighton Barrett, and keyboard/accordian player Jeff Hellis. And with song titles like 'Ignorant Piece Of Shit', 'Farewell To All These Rotten Teeth' and 'Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone', described by Pitchfork as 'coke-fuelled' and also being the band that single handedly kept the Seattle tattoo trade in business over the years, it was this name and image that gave the fair impression that they were little more than a Sonic Youth-esque garage punk rock band.

So you'd be very surprised when you actually hear Carissa's Wierd. Their plaintive, melancholic music won over many who were fortunate enough to be exposed to it. They embodied the very tag 'emo' (this was before it was cool and way before it became uncool). With dour balladry which was more beautiful than weird with its lush violins, pianos and delicate vocal harmonies, you'd be even more surprised that their music would have been at home on any episode of the O.C. (the bit where Ryan and Marissa split up, again, and patch up their differences just in time for the closing credits sitting on the beach at night). The band released three albums before their 2003 breakup, the final of which 'Songs About Leaving' contained an odd stateliness to its intimacy. The whispers, the solemn processional pace and strings aplenty. They had that expert ability of building to the highest highs before plunging to the deepest of sub-aquatic depths. This was pure emotional music (in the same sense that someone like Bright Eyes is 'emo') but it was incredibility beautiful.

Carissa's Wierd: Sympathy Bush (live in Seattle)


That album 'Songs About Leaving' was a modest success in the Northwest, topping many critics charts and leaving fans hungry for more. The band existed as a real underground cult act within their hometown and became local heroes. For one reason or another their success never spread wider a field and in late 2003 they disbanded. This premature death meant they were never able to fulfil the potential they would have undoubtedly been destined for.

However, it was not all bad news. From the broken pieces of Carissa's Wierd emerged a number of great new acts!

Band of Horses


Co-creator Mat Brooke and bass player Ben Bridwell went on to form the fabulous Band of Horses creating uberpingpong’s favourite album of 2006 Everything All The Time (on Sub Pop) - a true masterpiece. Sera Cahoone (also ex-Carissa's Wierd) played the drums on the record. The band are currently recording long-player number 2 and touring the globe later this year.


www.bandofhorses.com
myspace.com/bandofhorses


MP3 download:
Band of Horses: Funeral [from Everything All The Time LP] (Sup Pop)

Band of Horses: The Great Salt Lake [from Everything All The Time LP] (Sup Pop)

S
Following the band's breakup, other co-creator Jenn Ghetto went on to pursue a solo project under the moniker S. Continuing the legacy of vivid titling to her records her second full-length record Puking and Crying Ghetto collaborated with Creighton Barrett (also ex-Carissa's Wierd) and Josh Wackerly, to create a collection of dark and hauntingly intimate songs. Described by her label Suicide Squeeze Records as “organic even with the strange electronics, drum loops, blips and clicks involved. Puking and Crying has an up-close feel to it, a direct look into the songwriter and quite possibly could have been made distinctly for fans of Björk who need fewer theatrics, lovers of Belle and Sebastian longing for less posturing, and admirers of The Postal Service who aren't afraid to get a little dirty.”

MP3 download:
S: Falling [from Puking and Crying LP] (Suicide Squeeze Records)


Sera Cahoone

Carissa's Weird drummer Sera Cahoone started her own eponymous solo project that was also released on Sub Pop. The album Sera Cahoone unveiled a hauntingly beautiful country sound complete with heavy pedal steel and banjo.

Steam tracks from Sera Cahoone here:
myspace.com/seracahoone
seracahoone.com


Archives

Mat Brooke who left Band of Horses shortly after their debut album was released last year has recently formed this new Seattle-based act Archives. There are currently two very encouraging demo’s in circulation, one of which is called ‘Sleepdriving’ which closely echoes the two songs Brooke contributed to the Horses' debut (‘St. Augustine’ and ‘I Go to the Barn’) but as Pitchfork described it “boosting the volume, piling on vocal harmonies, and building to a massive, upending crescendo.” The other track George Kaminski a melodically beautiful flowing track could equally be one of the new Band of Horses tracks, its similarity to Carissa's Wierd is also uncanny.

Both Sleepdriving and George Kaminski are available to download now here: myspace.com/archivesusa

So, Carissa's Wierd, cult legends in their own right for having a uniquely beautiful and quiet sound which was still somehow tough at the same time, were undoubtedly special. Sure, we miss them but it was only after they disbanded that we began to witness the long-term musical importance of this band through the acts that have emerged from its original members. The results are both diverse and in a similar vein but what each member has retained in their music is that unique air of emotional beauty that Carissa's Wierd were known for (by those in the know).

You can hear more of Carissa's Wierd here:
myspace.com/carissaswierd
and
myspace.com/carissaswierd2