What's That?!: That My Friend, is Pas/Cal.
Pas/Cal is one of the main reasons I felt compelled to start this blog as I’m very content with the content of this group. In my opinion they towered over the mediocrity that was getting airplay at that time and I hold them in the highest esteem. Hoping to introduce you to their music so you’ll demand better out of your radio. Or at least add them to your Spotify playlist.
Welcome to the first installment of “What’s That?!”. Have you ever had that moment where, unexpectedly, you hear a few bars of a song, you don’t recognize it but sure as hell it has your undivided attention and admiration? You gotta, you jus’ gotta know what that song is, what band created it, what else is on the album as the hairs on both arms are standing at attention.
This happens to me frequently. With the miracle of Shazam these days I can simply press a graphical image of a button and beep, bop, boop, not only do I know who were the sirens that were now beckoning me closer to the coastline, but I can complete the journey and and find myself shipwrecked and completely vulnerable to the band that destroyed my vessel. With Shazam I can hear the group in questions extended catalogue and see if it is of the same caliber as what sent me off course in the first place.
Shazam didn’t exist that day Chevy’s ad agency wizards psychoanalyzed me hook line and sinker, at least in terms of selling me on this band and this genre of music. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what car they were trying to sell, nor can I confidently confirm that it was a Chevy vehicle (post article update… thanks to a Pitchfork article, it turns out it was actually a Saturn commercial). Pretty sure it wasn’t Ford as they were getting me with Techno music.
So there I was playing “that” song in my head at work wishing I knew who sang it, performed it, wrote it, where are they’re from, when are they coming to Detroit for a show, who who WHO!? Ugh, I wish there was a way I could tell my desktop computer to listen to the song and tell me who it is. Imagine how great that would be?
It was about this time that I was also into bands like Komeda, Of Montreal, Kings of Convenience and Lady Tron. If you listen to the songs I’ve associated with each via hyperlink, you’ll hear that they are upbeat, poppy and could possibly be on a Beach Boys album from the mid-60s. Such was life at that time. Upbeat and Poppy. I had just started a new job at a hip advertising firm in Dearborn and I was surrounded by creative types and life was my oyster. Smooth , fresh , happy , pretty… Amazing. You couldn’t be in a bad mood when you listened to these artists and their songs.
This was around 2004 and I had just turned 31, got a job of some "pomp and circumstance in advertising (or so I thought) and was surrounded by cubicles each musically moderated respectively by fellow WDET listening, Sam Jams shopping comrades. If there was a better human substitute to Shazam and Spotify than this office, I’d doubt it. Napster had just been regulated into oblivion, but sharing cd’s or a copy of a cd, or a copy of a copy of a cd was still prevalent. Not to mention if you could score one of the extra copies of the latest edition of Paste Magazine from the media department, with their cd sampler (and even luckier if you could find one with a DVD of videos, short films, etc) you were armed to be “in the know” and possibly, quite possibly you could introduce someone to something new too.
Well one day, at the agency we had hired a new wordsmith. Seemed like a nice enough chap; tall, skinny, disheveled hair much like a very young Bob Dylan before plugging in. Heck this guy could have been an illegitimate child of the Tangled Up In Blue composer. I don’t remember the situation, but the spawn of Dylan found himself in my cubicle. I couldn’t tell you how it was that we got on the subject of music, but I had learned that he was in a band. Maybe I was playing Komeda or Of Montreal or maybe it was the Bjork picture I had posted on my wall, but Trevor and I, we gets to talking music see. Trevor informed me that he was in a band and considering that this was juuuuuust before the days of Youtube, he managed to summon up on my computer his bands best known song.
“Holy Sh*t” its the song from the Chevy commercial!” What good deed did I do that karma would smile down upon me that day? At that moment I was as elated as Lucy VanPelt when Schroeder nailed the appropriate rendition of “Jingle Bells”. Trevor Naud, lead Guitarist of the band that had produced the perfect melody that I had been swooning over and was trying to identify was not only in Michigan, he was standing two feet from me in MY cubicle letting me know that the group he was in, PAS/CAL, had at one point either considered or was asked (I can’t remember) by Of Montreal to tour with them. And there it was, I had through some cosmic alignment, some truly divine intervention; not only ID’d the song I was sleuthing but talking to the guitarist of PAS/CAL. Imagine my surprise.
The song was “The Bronzed Beach Boys” which was the first track on their new EP “The Handbag Memoirs”.
Trevor left my cubicle and I was a bit star struck. Just a bit, only because Trevor was incredibly humble, unassuming and approachable. However, I thought to myself; “It’s only a matter of time before Pas/Cal blows up and he and his band mates are gone on tour.”
I’d later meet the band at their Christmas show in which they handed Ugly Christmas Sweaters before they were fashionable to do so. I still wonder if they unknowingly started the Ugly Christmas Sweater fad that night as they had Ugly Sweaters a plenty. Had they still had that garbage bag full knitwear today, they’d be sitting on a small fortune. Ironic considering every member was impeccably dressed in New England fashion from the 60s. Sometimes even an ascot.
holiday sweaters for everyone
Thats my sister Emily in the background using my camera to capture the moment. Notice no “Smart Phones”. Those were better days to “see” a concert.
Pas/Cal was:
Casimer Pascal - Vocals, Guitar, Mellotron
Bem - Additional Vocals
Gene Gorduroy - Electric Guitar
Trevor Naud - Electric Guitar
Nathaniel F.H. Burgundy IV - Bass Guitar and Heir to the Burgundy Fortune
LTD - Drums, Beer Bottles
Richard Panic - Organ, Piano
Fast forward to today and Pas/Cal is sadly no longer together. Members of the band started families in different corners of the East / Mid-East. Chicago, Detroit, Brooklyn… The fact that they aren’t more popular or as appreciated as Blur or the Dandy Warhols is, as Liz had commented on the Youtube page for this song, “Criminally underrated.”
Criminally underrated
- Liz
I couldn’t agree with “Liz” more. Even “Criminally” didn’t do her shared sentiment justice with me as at that time the airwaves were rife with “criminally” subpar and sophomoric artists that weren’t qualified to hold Pas/Cal’s guitar pics. Again, my goal of this blog isn’t to undermine these subpar artists… “subpartists” to coin a phrase.
Pas/Cal is one of those rare bands where I don’t have a favorite EP. I have a not-quite-favorite, their last album, but thats only because the songs that make up a majority of the album are mostly songs that were already released on previous EPs. But it’s still a wonderful album. My guess is that their last album was a last ditch effort to get their “classics” one more attempt at the recognition they so criminally deserved. Can’t blame em’ really.
Below are what I believe to be the Crème de la crème.
HIGHLIGHTS du pas/cal:
THE HANDBAG MEMOIRS
The Handbag Memoirs
To be honest with you, EVERY SONG on this EP, to me, is perfection. You can’t go wrong with any of them. Honestly.
I invite you to check out this albums, bandcamp page and savor every note of every minute of each songs life.
However there is one song, for me, a fan of instrumentals that stands out from the rest.
Mirion / Mariam is one of those songs that I just don’t know how it’s humanly possible, without Apollo over your shoulder pointing where to place notes on your notepad, to be able to come up with an arrangement in such utter perfection.
I hold this song in the with same esteem as I do as Radiohead’s “Meeting the Aisle” , The Beatles “Flying” and Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk”. Yeah, I think it’s that good.
oh honey, we’re ridiculous
Oh Honey, We’re Ridiculous
Again, every song is gold on this EP.
However, there is just something so special with “Poor Maude”.
Maybe its the clever references to Detroit icons and landmarks.
Maybe its the fact that it seems like 20 amazing songs working hand-in-hand with each other to tell one story.
Poor Maude is rich in creativity that would make Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello take note.
DEAR SIR
Dear Sir EP
This EP still gives me hope that they will put out music. It’s fun and light we could use more of that today.
Hear the entire EP here:
I was rasied on matthew, mark, luke & laura
I was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura
Along with the songs that had come off their previous EPs, Simply put, the two songs above confirm why I prefer T-Rex of the Beach Boys.
Hear the Entire album here:
Summer Is Almost Here - Off the Album “I Was Raised On Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura”
Lastly, and in order to keep this blog post from getting too long, here is, just in time for Spring/Summer; you’re new anthem for your summers to come… “Summer is Almost here”.
Album Link:
So there it is, my tribute in a desperate attempt to once again bring this band to the forefront of Spotify Playlists everywhere so maybe, just maybe; Pas/Cal will arise from ashes of building rehabs across the motor-city migrating home from their corners of the East/Mid-East to produce more whimsical soundtracks for Spring/Summer memories to come.
Links: