Caroliner

Part of a long line of avant-garde weirdoes from the Bay Area, Caroliner -- aka Caroliner Rainbow -- often described itself as "industrial bluegrass," which was likely the closest anyone ever came to pegging their uncategorizable sound. Their songs were rooted in 19th-century Americana and the sort of primitive folk found on the Harry Smith Anthology, but usually came wrapped in a thick crust of experimental noise and a bone-dry, dadaist sense of humor. Their records were just as likely to recall musique concrète or early industrial as country, folk, and bluegrass; everything in between was fair game as well, from early jazz to Eastern music to electronics. Their arrangements tended toward the minimal -- usually centered around banjo, violin, organ, and bass -- but often veered into noise-rock or elaborate orchestrations as well. Often sung by tape-altered voices, Caroliner lyrics were littered with pioneer and cowboy imagery from the Old West, but from a distinctly twisted perspective, with a flair for the macabre. The results often drew comparisons to Bay Area peers like the Residents and Sun City Girls, not to mention Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (with whom they shared personnel); other commonly cited influences were Throbbing Gristle and Captain Beefheart, and members of Mr. Bungle was rumored to be involved with Caroliner as well. Although Caroliner didn't guard their identities as jealously as the Residents, they were perhaps even more obscure in practice. Members did hide behind an ever-shifting array of ridiculous stage names, and the band's name changed from album to album -- the first two words were always Caroliner Rainbow, followed by an inscrutable phrase from one of the album's lyrics or titles (Caroliner was the official fallback name, however). Their...