Let us introduce you to CAAMP – or rather, let Duncan introduce you to CAAMP. Firstly, friend of the show Duncan calls into the studio and recommends Vagabond by CAAMP. Duncan then goes on a good old ramble about camping and watching caveman TV. Secondly, Richard and Tobin give their thoughts on Vagabond and a new friendship is forged. Intrigued? Then listen on! Furthermore, we have a second Listener Recommendation from Carter in New York City, USA.

Stay tuned and you will hear two Record Box Classics, one from Lisa Loeb and one from The Rolling Stones. In addition, Magic Bronson and Russian Red complete today’s line up.

Track Listing

1. Evil Plans Magic Bronson
2. Cigarettes Russian Red
3. Vagabond Caamp
4. Seasons (Waiting On You) Future Islands
5. Stay (I Missed You) Lisa Loeb
6. Crazy Mama The Rolling Stones
7. Nervous Magic Bronson

CAAMP is a folk trio from Ohio, making beautiful noise

Duncan called into the show to introduce his Listener Recommendation. If you’d like to do the same you can recommend your favourite tracks here. Their website describes them as: Started by boyhood friends Evan Westfall and Taylor Meier, CAAMP came to life in Athens, Ohio. Taylor began penning and playing original songs at coffee shops around Athens in 2013. Evan moved down a couple of years later and together in a hazy attic, enjoying light beers. They would find the heartfelt sound that became CAAMP. Since independently releasing their self-titled first record in 2016, they have climbed Spotify charts, headlined the US, purchased denim jackets and added a bass-playing buddy, Matt Vinson. He also enjoys light beers and denim. With the recent release of their sophomore album, the Ohioan trio has high hopes and no reservations.

The Band is currently on tour and are playing in London, UK on February 6th 2019 at Oslo. From the Bottom of the Record Box has generously been supplied tickets for this event. We are hopeful to gain access to the boys backstage.

We can’t thank Duncan enough for his exuberant, honest and passionate conversation with us. And for recommending such a great track. Because of this, CAAMP have become firm favourites here at Record Box HQ.

Magic Bronson

We couldn’t find out too much about Magic Bronson so we headed by their website and this is what it said…

Times are tough, and Magic Bronson is nervous. The Los Angeles-born-and-based duo has spent its six years together soaking up what’s going on in the world, and they’re profoundly uneasy. Their response to most situations is to write a song, which is how the 2017 track “Nervous” sprang into life. If you’re new to Magic Bronson, “Nervous” is a good place to start. The itchy lyric – “All the things that make you nervous/ Crooked cops and guilty verdicts/ Fires, floods, parking permits” – is countered by an absolute swirling corker of a synthpop melody. It’s earworm properties are pretty spectacular.

Most Magic Bronson songs nail that same combination – stone-cold melody-making paired with lyrics that are provocative and sometimes trippy. What makes it special is that the duo – Matt Lieberman (bass, synths, most lyrics) and Michael Nicastro (vocals, synths, drum programming, production). It is constitutionally unable to write the same song twice. 

How they met…

Nicastro, from Thousand Oaks, has been Lieberman’s musical other half since they ran into each other at a neighborhood dive bar in 2012. They knew each other by sight. Matt, raised in Agoura Hills, had been playing in a hip hop band, and Michael, a drummer by trade, was in another local group. “We were both looking for something new to do, and his dad is a musician and had a home studio, so we decided to get together and use his dad’s jam room,” Lieberman says.

Together, they turned out to be greater than the sum of their parts. A classic pairing of opposites, they’re a match made in music heaven. Nicastro is the eternal optimist, and bubbling over with ideas; Lieberman is “grumpy and sensitive” and plays devil’s advocat . “I always tell Michael, ‘Just show up and look pretty’,” Lieberman laughs.

Thanks to a good deal of blogger love, “Wildlife” was in the CMJ chart for seven weeks, and roped in an audience that increases with every release. (To date: there’s been another EP and a string of singles; autumn 2018 will see a third EP, and the follow-up to “Wildlife”, much delayed because of contractual snafus that are now resolved, will appear in early 2019.)

It’s the unpredictability that makes Magic Bronson so watchable and listenable. Next level stuff, about to break through the glass.

Next steps

In the meantime, try to catch a gig. Magic Bronson are the quintessential gotta-see’em-live act; their shows are where people who weren’t convinced before become committed Bronsonites. Nicastro is a capital-P Presence onstage, all 6’6” of him transported to some other plane. Using two mics, he inhabits the songs to a degree that feels almost dangerous. Picture Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring taking things a couple of steps further, and that approximates what Nicastro does up there. “To see a large guy move like that onstage… For the first couple of songs, the audience is looking at it with their heads tilted, wondering what’s going on, but by the fourth song they’re in our pocket,” says Matt, whose own onstage role is the quiet one holding down the rhythm.