“I don't know what kind of person I would be if I didn't have something to bitch about, whether it’s a personal issue or a political one,” laughs Mike Williams, vocalist for the Lancaster, PA screamo spazz assault known as CIRCUS CIRCUS, “We’re very passionate about certain things, and that is a big part of what makes us who we are.”
While Williams’ statement might seem incongruous for a band with a somewhat light-hearted moniker, it is, in fact, representative of CIRCUS CIRCUS as a whole – a blend of the serious and the not so serious, like a clown car crashing and burning on the highway. It’s everything that is enjoyable and uplifting about music colliding head-on with everything that is dark and cathartic about it.
Nowhere is this dichotomy exemplified more perfectly than on the band’s debut album, Brooklyn Nightlife.
Nightlife is a relentless sonic assault of an album that acutely pulsates with both danceability and destructability, combining celebration with chaos - like the sounds of Nero fiddling while Rome burned to the ground.
It’s a sound that doesn’t it borrow too heavily from any one genre, one in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And if the members’ intention wasn’t the reinvention of the wheel, forgive them for their lack of foresight.
”We didn’t set out to break ground with this album,” explains Williams, “but rather to write what we felt and what sounded right. In the end, as things came together, I began to feel that we were offering something different and original with this album.”
The resulting album combines the brash, bone-jarring urgency of post-hardcore and the upbeat tempos of pop-punk. It’s a swirling mish-mash of a listen wherein the most common thread is the sincerity and ardor that passionately permeates the music.
Since solidifying in early 2006, CIRCUS CIRCUS have been in constant motion, like a shark that can’t stop swimming, lest it die. The band’s self-released EP, Hut Hut Hike, turned heads in 2007 and garnered the band “featured artist” status on Purevolume.com. Honing their chops on the road, the band has since toured without relent, compiling an impressive resume in the process. Reading through the ranks of artists CIRCUS CIRCUS has shared the stage with is like reading a who’s who list of some of the underground’s most popular bands – a register that includes the likes of CHIODOS, GYM CLASS HEROES, EVERY TIME I DIE, THE BLED, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, FALL OF TROY and AUGUST BURNS RED.
Now, with Nightlife under their belts and the open road before them, things are looking damn good for CIRCUS CIRCUS.
“Idealistic as it may sound, we want to do CIRCUS CIRCUS for as long as we possibly can,” Williams continues. “We’re just now starting a new chapter, and we’re going to open the floodgates on people, staying on the road and sharing that this thing with them that is so important to all of us.”
There’s that passion again
