Pas/Cal, The Living Room, Lower East Side, Manhattan

A few months ago Eric gave me some mp3s and said “Rachelle, you’ve got to check out this band!”. Thus began my obsession with Pas/Cal. When I heard that they were going to be playing at The Living Room as part of the CMJ Music Marathon I got very excited. Pas/Cal hails out of Detroit, MI and isn’t yet doing national tours. Most of their gigs are local to the Detroit/Dearborn area so I knew I could not miss the show on Friday night. And let me tell you, they did not disappoint in the least. If possible, I like them even more now.

I was surprised when Pas/Cal came out and they have 7 members in their band. Casimer Pascal & LTD (Little Tommy Daniels) formed Pas/Cal in 2001. Casimer plays lead guitar and sings lead vocals and LTD is the drummer. Soon the band grew to include guitarist Gene Corduroy, Amy (Bem) Bem on vocals/keyboard/percussion, Nathan Burgundy on bass and Richard Panic on keyboards. In January of this year Pas/Cal recorded their first EP, The Handbag Memoirs, on Le Grand Magistery. Their second EP, Oh Honey, We’re Ridiculous, is due out soon.

Ok. So .. I knew Casimer’s voice was good, but I wasn’t prepared when he walked up to the mic in a 3-piece suit with his hands on his hips and belted out the opening lines of This Ain’t For Everyone. He has a beautiful voice. His stage presence has him bouncing all over and he’s got that so-nerdy-it-hurts-HOT thang going on. Kind of like Beck, but not. The show was great, I didn’t look away for one second. They played four songs from The Handbag Memoirs and about 3 more that will be on Oh Honey, We’re Rediculous. After the show, on the way out, I stopped and talked to Casimer to tell him what a great show it was. Also spoke to the keyboardist about the band, about Friendster, and about buying an EP.

Movie Clips (the visual on these isn’t that great because of the lighting, but the audio is good. All are .mov files and around 350k):

- Holiday Sweater
- I’d Bet My Life that You’d Bet Your Life
- The Bronze Beach Boys (Come on Let’s Go)
- Casimer’s clapping instruction
- Clapping into the last song

More Information:
- Pas/Cal’s Official Site
- An interview with Casimer Pascal
- Pop Matter’s review of The Handbag Memoirs
- Indianapolis Music Net article (includes some live mp3s)