Love & hate

This is how my day started yesterday. 2 new reviews that show the hate & love the press throws at us. It's enough to make you crazy.

Caeser Pink and the Imperial Orgy: Gospel Hymns for Agnostics and Atheists
Flora-ala Newspaper


So, I get this CD in the mail the other day from some band called "Caeser Pink and the Imperial Orgy" and it's called "Gospel Hymns for Agnostics and Athiests."

What choice did I have? I had to find out what this sounded like.

I wasn't sure whether to expect controversy or humor. Based on the EP's title, it could have been either one.

Reading the lyrics in the CD's jacket, I got both of these things. Listening to the CD itself, I got nothing.

Why? Because this is one of the worst demos I've ever heard.

From the outset I can tell this Mr. Pink should never get in front of a microphone unless he wants to announce the latest sale at Shoe Carnival.

Despite that there is a noticeable groove and comedic, repeating "Oh Lord" throughout the song, I can't get past this guy's voice.

Oh yeah, and those female back-ups aren't helping. It's obvious the band was going for a southern, '60s feel for the first two tracks, but it just sounds like a sloppy rehashing of old beats and old ideas.

Get the message here? There's nothing new about this band. Whether or not they belong in the '60s or the '90s, they're just too late for the sort of sound they were going for, even if it had sounded decent.

As with anything, however, there were occasional glimpses of actual talent. But these tidbits didn't last longer than it took for something to go horribly wrong-which was usually about three seconds.

The third track is just a mystery to me. It's like they went on vacation to Hawaii and thought they'd be cool and write a song island-style.

Again, it had been anyone else, this probably would have paid off. But Caeser and his misfit gang of orgy-obsessed imperialists butcher yet another genre.

So mark that one off the list and let's move on to the grand finale.

This song was done in the style of a heartfelt ballad from a teen movie from hell. Once more, Pinkie made me want to bash my brain against the wall, or at least his vocal cords.

Now, I'm completely open to the idea that these strange song-styles were done purposely and could also have been done as a joke. But the point remains, no matter what the Orgy was going for, they didn't pull it off.

There was a press release enclosed with this CD. In it, the band tried to play up their image by stating that no college radio station will play their songs because of their controversial lyrics. They even proudly list the stations that have banned their music.

Know what I think? I think most, if not all, of those stations have forbidden the Orgy from appearing on their airwaves not because of the lyrical content, but because they suck.

So, want your CD reviewed? Send it along with any press material to the Flor-Ala.

Let's see if you can top Caeser Pink. Come on music lovers, it's pretty much a guarantee.

Iconoclastic band fronted by mad social visionary calls for revolution
The Stoutonian Newspaper

Caeser Pink and the Imperial Orgy is unlike any musical phenomenon one could find. A band whose style has resonated old-school punk, psychedelic funk and experimental art rock, managed to stray from common alternative standards as well as their own for their album, “Gospel Hymns For Agnostics And Atheists.”

The title is most assured to commandeer one’s attention. It alone often starts the cycle of controversy surrounding the band. They have been banned from airplay for being “anti-religion,” “unethical” and “too political.” They’ve even canceled shows due to threats of extreme violence or the eruption of riots at the venue. And this isn’t from more conservative markets; even college radio and media has less than embraced the band’s tracks.

But there is nothing explicitly or implicitly blasphemous or heretic about it. It does not promote or defy any particular sect or faction of religion, but rather illustrates more universal truth.

The music has a folk twinge to it, with a traditional rock flow, and spiritually uplifting overtones. If Bob Dylan had started writing songs in this era, this is what he’d have written. Also, in the spirit of being truly unifying and cohesive, the third track “So It Is” derives its rhythms from the style of South African “Township Music.”

The truly original lyrical performance is brilliant; the words are not just lyrics to a song, but pure poetry. They are not just heard or read, they are felt and experienced. No one walks away untouched.

Perhaps this is why they have been repeated targets of censorship and protest.
Perhaps the reason that Pink and his orgy are often so fiendishly contested is because they present raw thoughts and ideas reflected from the very face of the human condition.

Rock ‘n’ roll has an association with drugs, and The Orgy does not disappoint with lines like “Pills can make you happy, I seen it on TV. So drug me with your video screens, S&M scenes and altered genes, drug me drug me drug me till I believe,” from the album’s first track “The Amazing Tenacity of Job & His Brethren.”

The song’s chorus follows, echoing, We preach what we lack, we curse what we sow, and people are the opposite of what they show.”

The controversy, the debate, the violence, the passion elicited by the sounds of this band tells us something vital. That this band does not just make music, they do not just make records; they create art.

Pink, the band’s enigmatic leader, feels, “Art is either revolutionary or conformity.” That being said, Pink is disturbed by trends in the censorship of expression on college radio. Depriving free access to the media deprives artists of a voice to reach people.

“It’s a sign of the conformist spirit that America has taken,” said Pink. “Americans have forgotten that music is an artform with which to express ideas, and that there was a time when rock music was a conduit for social change.”

These lyrics clearly do not condone reckless chemical consumption or active rebellion of any sort. They simply reflect some of the hypocrisy of common life. And that is why they are met with such malice. They challenge the power structure at its core ideas. They expose the overlooked.

In the song “Praise of Shadows” they profess that, “Everybody’s got a skeleton somewhere.” Maybe this is an example of what arouses such contempt; skeletons are where they are because people want them hidden. Later in that verse they ask, “What should we do now? Should we huddle in the corner, live with fear in our hearts?”

Do we hide from our skeletons, do we fear our truth? It would seem that many do.

Caeser Pink and the Imperial Orgy may offend because they make art and good art is made to offend. To be offended one must feel the foundation of their beliefs has been challenged or threatened.

This implies that not only does one possess a foundation of beliefs, but feels its preservation to be a priority. The artist’s goal is not to make friends, but to make thinkers.

This is what The Orgy does and this is why they rock.

They refer to the tracks as “Gospel Hymns” because the specific concoction of chords and comprehensive lyrics compose ballads of being. They say they’re for Agnostics and Atheists because they speak of a “Ubiquitous experience of spirit transcendent of any specific doctrine.”

Those with an open mind can dive deeper into the heart of The Orgy, for good or for ill, by visiting www.theimperialorgy.com.