"It's not hard to be intrigued by this young avant-garde band... freakish and eerie music... ghostly, antique sounds..."
Sarah Quelland, Metro Silicon Valley
"Corpus Callosum surely roars and raises a beautiful hell... unique, creative and intellectual... confronts current consciousness around music-making and performing."
Maria Pugnetti, JunctionArt.org
"Like something you'd hear if you walked into a ghost town saloon and the instruments were playing themselves along with a giant singing marionette... These music-makers are both behind and ahead of their time."
Joe Younglove, KZUM, Lincoln, NE
Corpus Callosum is an effort to create dynamic, finely crafted songs, both heady and theatrical, using do-it-yourself means. The band credits influence from American roots music, gamelan, early industrial and noise and western classical. They draw upon the sounds of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Velvet Underground, Tom Waits and Einstürzende Neubauten, among others, to generate a unique soundscape.
Songwriters Avery Burke and Dax Tran-Caffee collaborate with musicians Stevie Hryciw, Zach Michels, Qarly Canant, Andrea Craver, and Jason Samaha. This ensemble composes songs using traditional instruments such as accordion, reed organ, banjo, glockenspiel, mandolin and guitar; more obscure instruments like the singing saw, theremin, wash bucket bass and glass goblets and common objects such as pots and pans, pickaxes, children's toys, a kitchen blender and sheet metal. As much performance art as music, a Corpus Callosum concert showcases an array of puppetry, stilt-walking, kinetic sculpture, and other uncanny imagery to complement and embellish the sound.
Corpus Callosum has shared stages with such notable bands as The Mountain Goats, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, Yo La Tengo, Zeena Parkins, Vermilion Lies, Matmos and Jason Webley. They have been hosted by radio stations KSCU Santa Clara, KKUP Cupertino, KFJC Los Altos Hills and KDVS Davis.
Their first album, Strange Fruit, was self-published in the winter of 2003. Three live performances have since been recorded and released. Their six-track EP, Machine Under Its Own Spell, was self-released in May 2005. It received national review and airplay, including #1 on the charts of KUOI, Moscow, ID (8/8/05 and 8/22/05) and #2 on the charts of WNUR, Chicago, IL (8/23/05). In 2007, the band was awarded a residency at the SnowGhost sound studios in Whitefish, MT, where they recorded tracks for an upcoming album. Corpus Callosum is currently searching for a distributor for these recordings.