With wit as dry as the desert and songwriting as potent as perfume, longtime Athens-music-aficionados-turned-up-and-coming -rock stars Casual Future traverse the dangerous mountains of Athens County to bring its residents their own special brew of folk rock.
Casual Future, which in its current form has been around only since March, is heavy on the emphasis of culture in this musical nugget tucked in the head of the Appalachian Mountains.
While some shows may feature just hardcore punk and others may feature singer-songwriter acoustic acts or anything in between, Casual Future likes to play shows that feature several different styles, said Brian Koscho, who plays guitar and atmospheric soundscapes.
We can play with a lot of different bands
said guitarist and vocalist Scott Spice.
Koscho said he credits this to Casual Future's ability to do something different with music, as the band has found its own comfortable niche in Athens. From this position, Casual Future has been able to have plenty of breathing room with their style and nearly unlimited creative options. These options are greatly influenced by the members of the band but are also influenced by their peers, said drummer Todd Jacops.
The band's name came to Spice while reading a book about Albert Einstein, physics and time travel. After long, studious hours, letters tended to switch around and what Spice read as casual future actually read causal future Koscho said. A simple and forgivable inaccuracy was read, but it was one that led to a band name whereas a correct interpretation would have led to nothing more than the next sentence of the textbook.
Guitarist Dustin Thomas said he felt the name just fit with him and his band mates, being quite casual fellows. Plus Causal Future was just not as good a band name and would not have been used, Spice said.
But the aptly named Casual Future fit well with the band as they released their first self-produced EP in May, recorded in Jacops' bedroom, also known as The Rock Room. Last weekend the band finished recording its first full-length disc, Footnotes In the City Lights. The disc was recorded in Cleveland at Zombie Proof Studios.
The studio is basically a warehouse with the windows completely blacked out, Spice said.
You could wake up at 11 and think it's 3 a.m. Jacops said.
The band would leave the warehouse only once a day to eat and usually ordered in for other meals, Spice said. The darkness really took the time element out of the day and let the band concentrate on recording a really good album, he said.
The band expects to release the disc early next year.
But for now, catch Casual Future with Silo Circuit and Adam Torres' project Nostra Nova tonight at Casa Cantina, 4 W. State St. at 10 p.m.
17
Archives
Chris Yonker
200611093783midsize.jpg
Casual Future members Dustin Thomas, guitar; Todd Jacops, drums; Scott Spice, guitar and vocals; and Brian Koscho, noise and guitar, have embraced a cozy perch in the Athens music scene since March, when the lineup shifted to its current state.
