Centipede E'est
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Centipede E'est

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The best kept secret in music

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"Dusted Magazine"

Upon my last few visits back home, the talk was all on Centipede E’est. This is the new band that everybody there loves, a collective including former members of the Karl Hendricks Trio, Dirty Faces, Johnsons Big Band, Shopping, and Boombox, and current members of Midnite Snake and Pay Toilets. A curious mix there, from earnest singer-songwriter outfits to swampy horn-saddled Dexy’s worship to chaos-enabled no wave destruction units. Get these folks together and interesting things can happen. For starters, forming a rock band built around gut-thumping percussive swing and world-beat rhythmic cadences, married in such a way that you wouldn’t want to hear them any other way. Serpentine twin-lead guitars that hold down the script with nimble runs and stray notes in equal but not overbearing nature. Dueling vocalists rushing to grab the crown. Overall, a very exciting place to be.

At first, Cheeks of Neptune, the band’s debut, is most easily likened to specifics. There’s a good bit of the atmosphere of a Les Savy Fav record in here, just in terms of the looseness of cadence, the boastful lyrics (“We eat the harvest! We shit grape vines!” stands out from opener “Zion is Cyan”), and the heat of the recording atmosphere (the album was made in guitarist Nicholas Fallwell’s hometown of Paint Rock, Alabama, in the family barn). Also evident are early Flaming Lips (Telepathic Surgery particularly comes to mind in the jagged pop melodies), and Polvo’s tendencies to wrap a guitar line around on itself and tie it intricately at its end, out of time.

Where these guys flip the script is within the rhythms, inspired by the costume Creole stonk of Dr. John’s Gris-Gris, the furious machinations of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, the wild downtown skronk of Mofungo, and the polyphony of Afrobeat in equal measure. Running these influences together, repeat listens tie the songs into a tangled knot of strings and sentiment. Cheeks of Neptune offers up a Gordian set of unsteady, momentous indie rock, from the straight-ahead SST rage of “Blue Streak” to the rumpshake of “Mogadon Dance Hall,” to the stoic burn of penultimate track “Sinking Boats,” the standout track here. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a modern rock rhythm section as intricate and keyed in as drummer Sam Pace and bassist Caulen Kress, nor will you find a hype man as animated as singer/guitarist James Lingo.

Centipede E’est is out there making golden-age music for a Bronze Age scene, where the inspired, bored, and wealthy immigrate to bigger cities to get decadent. Pittsburgh’s still got these guys and it's time to share. - www.dustedmagazine.com


"Portland Mercury"

MONDAY 7/17

CENTIPEDE E'EST, LIFE COACH, ETERNAL TAPESTRY, DJ NATE C

(Tube, 18 NW 3rd)

Pittsburgh's Centipede E'est make punchy little psyche rock jams that twist around like a Rubik's Cube, sticking all kinds of pop-locking rhythms and fuzzy dueling guitars atop drums and bass that are as tight as a pitbull's death grip. They can do this as a semi-pop song, or a weird, time-signature busting noise grind. Both work well. Both show the band confident, dark, and deadly. Locals Eternal Tapestry (members of Jackie-O Motherfucker and Dark Yoga) open. --Adam Gnade - Portland Mercury


"Pittsburgh Citypaper"

Pittsburgh City Paper review

Featured Music Preview ARCHIVES
11/24/2005

Centipede E'est
Rutting Haiku

Writer: JUSTIN HOPPER


Jim Lingo, renowned Pittsburgh eccentric, describes the Alabama farmhouse where Centipede E'est recorded its debut album thusly: "There were gates, and drives down dirt roads and no neighbors, and cows in pastures."

Perhaps a Bloomfield rooftop -- overlooking piping smokestacks and innumerous hard-hat zones and busy, honking side streets -- is infrequently conducive to haiku. (By now, having read and re-read Lingo's off-the-cuff remarks, you've noticed the 5-7-5 syllabic structure, the acquiescence to nature, the Shiki-esque drifting realist simplicity.) But such a joining of urban smoke and elemental spirit is central to Centipede E'est, a new quartet formed from the ashes of several departed local bands.

Guitarist/singer Lingo and bassist Caulen Kress (also of Karl Hendricks' band) found their post-punk group Boombox disintegrating even as it seemed finally to be fulfilling its potential. Around the same time, singer/guitarist Nick Falwell's group Shopping splintered, and drummer Sam Pace -- ex- of the Dirty Faces and Johnsons -- was looking for a new project as well. The four fell together and, after a three-month romance, a handful of rehearsals and no gigs, found themselves driving 700 miles to record an album at Falwell's parents' farmhouse in rural northeastern Alabama.

"The very first practice, the songs were just there," says Lingo. "I think we're all proud of this album, but we'd only been together three months, and I think it just scratches the surface."

For four days, with ex-Shopping man Scott Carney at the controls, the Centipedes holed themselves up in the farmhouse located near the bustling metropolis of Paint Rock -- population 185. ("It's not actually that bad," says Kress. "We went out to the Piggly Wiggly, and among their beer selection, they had Coors Light, Bud, Miller and two six-packs of Yuengling.") They watched lightning silhouette the woods against the skylights, miked amplifiers in all the closets, and recorded vocals in a fallout shelter, surrounded by dehydrated peanut butter.

"While Jim was doing a [feedback and effects] solo, Sam and I were out on the porch," says Falwell. "There was some kind of stag or mountain lion out there, and it started calling back to the sounds Jim was making."

"I think," says Pace, cautiously, "I think it was rutting."

And rutting is, perhaps, a good way to describe the nature-boy swagger and chest-thump, the damnably confident-if-selfless rock 'n' roll of Cheeks of Neptune, Centipede E'est's completed debut. For instance "Org of Cong," an anarchic rock trundle that bucks at its own reflection in the still pond water, or "Mogadon Dancehall," which runs its course from faux-Afrobeat Gang of Four-ism through to wave-whipped, relentless guitar wash. Beyond an embrace of the organic and of some kind of twisted, natural spirituality that permeates even Centipede's noisiest post-punk thrash (Falwell's suggestion for an upcoming live recording's title: Honorable Mention at the Inner Peace Competition), Cheeks of Neptune finds itself accidentally walking an elemental-themed path. "Sinking Boats," with its disaster-at-sea drumming and nautical lyrics, and Lingo's "Asian-tsunami requiem," "Mountaintop Beaches." As if to stress the point, Centipede E'est goes so far as to include musique concrete recordings of tiny waterways -- goddamn tree-huggers.

"We took a trip to Cook Forest," says Lingo, "and we hiked through the woods down to the Clarion River. I brought a thumb piano and a mini-disc recorder, and we recorded water percussion, and sticks on rocks, for the middle of 'Excuse Me Medusa/The Scaler.' We saw a fawn, too, we saw it stand up for probably the first time in its life. And we all held hands and hovered above the trees."

Since recording Cheeks of Neptune, Centipede E'est has had some slightly more worldly successes, too. A string of well-received gigs has resulted in an upcoming tour with indie semi-stars Oxford Collapse, and in their 12 months together, the Centipede members believe the band has gained more momentum in just a few months than many other projects did in years.

"We'd like to get on a label, and I would hope that would happen," says Pace. "But a label, to me, isn't some kind of get-rich-quick -- or, in fact, anything but a way to possibly get heard more. We're all realistic at this point. But it'd be nice to have someone distribute the music, so that we can call up a venue and say, 'We'd like to come here and play,' and not just be some random band; have something out there that they might've heard of."

"We've talked about [success]," says Lingo, "because -- what the hell would we even want? But still, you strive for something, even if you don't know what it is." - Piggsburgh Citypaper


"Caulen Interview in New Yinzer"

Your Heart Out


Its a Saturday night and Im at the Hot House. Im kind of surprised my friends were able to convince me to pay fifteen dollars to get into this fundraiser (despite the good cause), but once Im in, Im happy Im here. The free booze helps, but what really has me feeling my money was well-spent is the discovery that Centipede Eest is playing. Its nearing 11pm and Im milling through the crowds of people, free food, and displays when I hear the band start up like an explosion on a stage off in the distance. Without a second thought, I turn and head in the direction of the music. There, center-stage, is Caulen Kress, rocking out with his black bass slung around him. Hes got on black-frame glasses, a T-shirt and jeans, and a Steelers arm-band. When he plays, his body rocks to the beat and his dark hair covers his face.

Centipede Eest play fucking loud. By the time I reach the stage, they start into Blue Streak, which features a tight, rocking bass-linethe backbone of the songwhich allows guitarists Jim Lingo and Nick Fallwell to wank and produce feedback-driven guitar solos. Im standing maybe five or ten feet from the stage, theres a guy holding up a stick of incense maybe two feet from the stage, and there is a break-dancing floor set up behind to me. Its a strange but cool juxtaposition to see people break-dancing to Centipede Eest. Sam Pace is hitting his drum-kit so hard its falling apart, it seems, and Kress is kicking at it. The snare is all over the place. The high-tom and crash fall over. Above the band, a movie screen plays a chaotic mess of colorful shapes. At one point, between songs, Lingo offers his whiskey to the audience and a few drunks stumble forward and huddle around him at the edge of the stage. Then its back to the rock. The band kicks into Come + GoKress and Pace keep a steady driving rhythm while the guitars bounce back and forth. I steal a pen from my friend Leslie and scribble in my memo-pad, These guys are my heroes.



My first conversation with Caulen Kress took place some years ago in a stuffy, cramped classroom in the Cathedral of Learning, and though I dont remember the specifics of the conversation now, Im sure we talked about music. Kress and I were in a class together called Ballads and Blues, and from the first class meeting, we acknowledged each other with a head-nod that referenced my regular trips to Pauls CDs, where Kress worked (and still works) the counter several days a week. And Kress, no doubt, knew from my taste in music that I knew of his talents as a bass player. Its pretty hard to miss the bass player of the premier indie-rock band in town when hes standing behind the counter of the citys best independent record store, and hes standing next to the frontman of said band.

I saw Kress play bass for The Karl Hendricks Trio only a couple of timesmost memorably a show at the 31st Street Pub with Silkworm. For one reason or another, I didnt know about KHT until a few years ago when my friend JL moved out here from California and mentioned the Pittsburgh-based KHT as one of his favorite bands. And Kress left KHT in early 2004 to focus on Boombox, his other musical venture at the time. That same year, Boomboxs drummer moved to Chicago, and Kress formed a new band with former members of local bands Shopping and Dirty Faces. The band was originally called Centipede, but soonperhaps to avoid legal confrontation with Atarithe band tacked on an Eest. When asked where the Eest came from, Kress shrugsNo ones really sure where it came from. We came up with the name Centipede and then Sam sort of had an idea for a band for a while that he just wanted to call Eest. No ones really sure how the apostrophe ended up in there.



Kress, 28, grew up in West View, in the suburbs just north of PittsburghThere wasn't much that interested me or my friends in the area, so we were lucky to be a ten-minute drive away from Oakland, Bloomfield and other neighborhoods that had much more going on, Kress says, We drove to the city for shows or art openings almost every night from roughly 1992 to 1996, when I graduated and moved to Squirrel Hill. Music has long been a part of Kresss lifethroughout his childhood he took piano lessons and played cello in a orchestra. When he was 15, he got his hands around a bass guitar, and that, he says, has been my musical focus for the past 10 years or so. In 1997, Kress joined the Karl Hendricks Trio and in the summer of that year, he played his first show outI never played in a band before that. I would jam with some friends but nothing, luckily, in front of an audience. Looking back though, I wish I had played at least one show before my first KHT showit was a very nerve-wracking experience.



Centipede Eest oscillates between indie-rock, garage-rock, punk, and metaland oftentimes in the course of one song. In a song like Franciscan Position, the somewhat-d - New Yinzer


"Midheaven/Revolver USA"

Artist: CENTIPEDE E’EST Title: Cheeks Of Neptune
Format: CD Catalog
Number: CDCENTICHEE
Price: $11.25 Label: 100 Legs Under The Sea
Release
Date: 3/6/06
***The debut album from Pittsburgh free rockers CENTIPEDE E’EST. Nine tracks of lurching and driving rock damage recorded by experimental filmmaker SCOTT CARNEY in rural Alabama. An “...explosion of speaker-shredding fuzz-guitar-skronk, sinister funk grooves, sprawling post-punk jams, a haunting ‘Revolution 9’-esque tape loop of Karl Hendrick’s daughter and several cuts that had to have resulted in severely damaged vocal chords.”--Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. - Midheaven/Revolver USA


Discography

Centipede E'est "Cheeks of Neptune"
LEGS001 Format: CD || UPC:656605887524
Label: 100 Legs Under the C
(distributed by Midheaven/Revolver USA)
(radio contact AAM, hector@aaminc.com)

V/A Unicorn Mountain Vol. 2
"Twighlight Mirage"
A Comix/Lit/Music Journal
Label: Unicorn Mountain

V/A "Revolved Back to Failure"
Mr. Roboto Project Cassette Comp 2
Label: Hard Travellin'

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

"Centipede E'est is out there making golden age music for a Bronze Age scene."--Dusted Magazine

"A complex and rewarding affair into stonky, artsy territories, exhibiting some of the same looseness that blessed The Magic Band, but with more direct songs, and laden with one of the tightest and most in-synch rhythm sections performing today."--Plan B

"An embrace of the organic and some kind of twisted, natural spirituality permeates even (their) noisiest thrash."--Pittsburgh CityPaper

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Centipede E'est is the sound of a rusty freighter breaking open on a foreign headland. A place where scaled animals writhe on clinking exoskeletons, spiked vegetation and ruined masses of ooze.

Centipede E'est's debut album, Cheeks of Neptune, was recorded after scant practices and no performances. The tight-knit sound was largely improvised and documented by experimental filmmaker Scott Carney.

After a year and a half of cataclysmic performances, tours with Brooklyn's Oxford Collapse, and playing with Major Stars, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Man Man, Constantines, Part Chimp, Zombi, Times New Viking and Wilderness, the sound of Centipede E'est has galvanized.

Praising/flailing in the continuum between Miles Davis' Jack Johnson sessions, early Mahavishnu Orchestra, mid-era Groundhogs, and late White Heaven/Stars, Centipede E'est are striving for new creations. Uninhibited by training, grasping for rhythmic sound.

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TAKE NOTE
Centipede E'est are always looking to play your town
West Coast Tour July 2006
East Coast Tour October 2006

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Booking Concerns contact Caulen Kress:
centipedemusic@yahoo.com -- 412.708.7582

Promotional Concerns contact Nick Fallwell:
centipedemusic@yahoo.com -- 412.779.7006