CIRCUS LUPUS - s/t LP

Highly recommended.

Before Circus Lupus landed on Dischord, the group’s original Midwest lineup recorded a full LP worth of songs less than a year after forming. With the demise of DC’s Ignition in the late 80s, bass player Chris Thomson headed to Madison, WI. Before leaving DC, he dove headfirst into being a vocalist fronting the short-lived hardcore project Fury. Chris served up pointed and profound Tony Cadena-inspired screeds about betrayal, disappointment and poseurs all set to furiously primitive and chaotic music supplied by members of the DC punk band Swiz.

Brief yet influential, this band marked Chris’s switch to vocals, putting him on course to front Circus Lupus and claim a notable spot in the DC punk timeline of the late 20th century. Soon after arriving in Madison, Thomson was invited to join a new project started by friends Chris Hamley, Arika Casebolt, and Reg Shrader.

Circus Lupus marked a change in direction from the familiar sounds of DC punk that Thomson had been associated with for years. The newly formed group looked to noisier Touch And Go and Homestead bands for inspiration, aligning themselves with bands from Chicago, Louisville and Milwaukee.

One early supporter of the band described the new group as “profoundly familiar yet uncategorizable. Like if the Germs had gone to college and never got pulled into hard drugs and suicidal behaviors.”

The original Circus Lupus lineup played a dozen shows and recorded these songs with Eli Janney at Inner Ear studios in August of 1990. Within a year, the band would decide to permanently relocate to Washington DC. Reg opted to move to Chicago and old friend Seth Lorinczi (Vile Cherubs) would become their new bass player, forming the version of the band that most listeners are familiar with.

While a few of these ended up on their first single, the rest were shelved, some later to be rerecorded with Seth and released on Dischord.

The original tapes were recovered by Ian MacKaye and remixed and remastered at Louder Studios, CA.