Calabi Yau – “Elitist” – Lunchbox

Calabi Yau were hands-down the best band in North Carolina for a few years. There was no other band pushing music as hard or as out-there as this band, and they opened every single rad show that came to Charlotte. By the time this record came out, they had already been a band for close to four years and had changed sounds quite a few times, always holding on to the off-kilter feeling of near collapse. Between the time that this record was recorded, until it was released the actual sound of the band had changed so dramatically, that seeing them sell this record was actually strange. They mellowed out and a lot of the intensity had left. They had also gotten quite a bit more popular, which led me to believe most of the squares that bought this record after seeing their more subdued live show were left scratching their heads.
This single does a great job capturing the most no-wave sounding that Calabi Yau ever got. The two-guitar rambling is very routed in the Mars/DNA camp, but the drums are off the chart in terms of defining. Davey, who later went on to play in the very good Moenda, is probably my favorite drummer. There are points in these songs where it sounds like he actually wrote the songs and had the other two members write parts to accompany his incredible drumming. The first side of this record sounds a lot more like the Contortionist than the second side, but I could never figure out why until I accidentally listened to it with the bass cranked: the bass line on the second side is just amazing. It pulls a bit away from the New York scene and starts drawing more into the Skin Graft arena. Some of the back-and-forth between the stringed instruments is reminiscent of Arab On Radar, but there is nothing abrasive about the actual sound of the record. It’s recorded well, and it’s beautifully packaged, but there are moments when the drums kind of disappear in the recording. I wish that I could remaster just the drums on this record and put that out again because I feel like it would be a game changer.
This record never really sold well for a variety of reasons. When the band was most active they were touring and playing out all the time, but by the time this came out some of the energy seemed to have disappeared. I think the delay in getting the covers assembled definitely contributed to this problem. It’s hard to sell a record when you know you only have half of the pressing to sell. Bo White, who sings and plays guitar and bass on this went on to play in Yardwork, as well as putting out a number of solo recordings and running the now-infamous, Yau Haus in Charlotte. Robin and Davey, who played guitar and drums respectively, went on to form the really incredible Moenda, who put out an LP and in my opinion, one of the best demo tapes I’ve ever heard.


This video isn't from this ep, but you get to see at least a little of what was going on with this group-