"Corpus Callosum is the band I always wanted to be..."
Bay Area microtonal musician Rick McGowan graciously documented a few of our shows surrounding the time of our 2009 reunion.
"The evocative music of Corpus Callosum sounds like a band of troubadours slowly gallivanting down a boulevard with supplies and remnants attached to strings dragging along the ground. They see any object's instrumental potential, making listening to Machine Under Its Own Spell closely and often the best approach as far as I can tell... It sounds 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."
Joe Younglove, KZUM, Lincoln, NE
Visit Halo-17 for the entire review.
"With an arsenal of homemade and salvaged instruments including accordions, banjo, singing saw, theremin, glass goblets, pickaxes, sheet metal and more, the band Corpus Callosum surely roars and raises a beautiful hell. The unique creative and intellectual paths of each character in the band make for a brilliant musical wonder, a beautiful Frankenstein that confronts current consciousness around music-making and performing. Corpus Callosum is far cry from some of the Bay Area's more bloodless and toothless bands that continue to prop themselves up on a platform of die hard rock cliches... Corpus Callosum has done the inconceivable - by cultivating a mighty crop of creation that could rumble the tectonic rock beneath and quench the imaginations of the last staggering audiences in this valley..."
Maria Pugnetti, JunctionArt.org
From an announcement of a Mountain Goats show @ LG Outhouse:
"It's not hard to be intrigued by this young avant-gard band, which uses singing saw, accordion, Theremin, crystal goblets and strange instruments like the Golden Calf and the Daxophone to create freakish and eerie music. Avery Burke serves as a fine ringleader for this experimental group and Corpus Callosum demonstrates a kinship to the ghostly, antique sounds of bands like 16 Horsepower and Denver Gentlemen. The Mountain Goats (a.k.a. indie rock demigod John Darnielle) and the Sidekicks also perform."
Sarah Quelland, Metro Silicon Valley
"Using only minimal instrumentation, the fibrous being that calls itself Corpus Callosum subjects your ears to an eerie blend of acoustic guitar, oboe, keys and haunting voices, all the while stinging your emotions with terse lyrics. While the bulk of Corpus' music revolves around the guitar, the band prides itself on producing lopsided rhythms that provide for some unusual musical twists and turns..."
Andrew Magilow, Splendid E-Zine
Visit Splendid for the entire demo review.