Tools
Caustic Resin
w/Mike Johnson, Mike Watt
Stranger Personals
Fri April 4, Crocodile, $10.
No one would ever call them critical darlings, but I've been a huge fan of Caustic Resin since I heard 1998's The Medicine Is All Gone. The snarky tastemakers at Pitchforkmedia.com called them a "triple layer shit cake," but I heard a gorgeous disaster in that record that sounded like a teenage Ozzy Osbourne being fellated by Jesus Lizard's David Yow while Brian Eno documented the whole sordid mess--a little slice of experimental-indie-metal heaven.
Still, it's not hard to figure out why critics and audiences slam Caustic Resin so frequently and with such derision. Their foundation is a rather muddy mix of neopsychedelic jamming, vintage heavy metal atmospherics, and classic rock bombast. Frontman Brett Netson (a self-taught guitarist who began playing at age nine and was practicing five hours a day by the age of 16) has an unyielding fondness for soaking his vocals in delay and reverb, which can sound a little goofy at times. And their live shows are notoriously uneven--more than once I've dragged friends down to see what all my ranting was about, only to embarrass myself when Netson's feverish playing style sent the group into an unfocused, out-of-sync freefall.
Netson isn't surprised when I share this history with him. "It was never intended to be that way," he laughs, "but I've heard that story a million times--there are shows where things feel supremely kickass and we go into another universe, but there's also times when it just falls flat on its face. Very loudly."
Netson started polarizing his peers in the late '80s playing with a punk band called the Pugs in his hometown of Boise. He found himself running with a punk crowd because of their nonconformist politics, but soon found himself unwelcome. "They didn't appreciate my classic-rock mentality--at all." Luckily, a fellow teenager named Doug Martsch caught a Pugs show and gravitated toward the traits that Netson's bandmates were dismissing.
"I always hated [the Pugs]," Martsch remembers, "but that night I noticed that they had added this giant, crazy, Jimi Hendrix guitar sound to the band. Brett was sort of fucking around over the top of what they were doing--and I thought it was great."
Netson and Martsch became fast friends, and recorded Built to Spill's debut, Ultimate Alternative Wavers, in 1993 (with Netson on bass). Netson simultaneously launched Caustic Resin, and though that project would become his primary focus, he and Martsch continued to work together extensively. Netson contributed heavily to Built to Spill's Perfect from Now On and Ancient Melodies of the Future, and the two bands split an EP on Up Records in 1995. Built to Spill also tours with Netson as an additional guitar player, an augmentation that Martsch praises endlessly.
"He's always paid a lot of attention to what makes good guitar playing--especially tone," explains Martsch. "It's a subtle thing, but if you handed a guitar to me and told me to play one note and then handed it to Brett and told him to do the same, his would sound much, much better. He just knows how to coax great tones, and that's really what makes him magical--very few people have that instinct."
Netson's instincts may be his saving grace, but the band's collective dabbling in substances has been their Achilles' heel. "I went through a bunch of lineup changes after The Medicine Is All Gone because of various people's problems with the law and drugs," says Netson. "Everyone was in really bad shape--it was seriously grim."
The stress of that dark period showed on 1999's Trick Question, but Caustic Resin survived, regrouped, and moved forward after releasing 2000's The Afterbirth, a series of outtakes from the Medicine sessions. They struck a deal with Up Records and Netson is pleased with the relaxed performances on the recently released Keep on Truckin, a strong, homespun collection of classic Caustic, recorded on a dime and featuring the addition of Mike Johnson on bass and occasional guitar.
Netson also feels better about striving for more consistency in their live performances. "Now I'm more into delivering the goods--making a good product," enthuses Netson. "I don't mean that in a cheap way; I mean making something good that will last and that people will enjoy. As much as I like to fuck shit up, I like to deliver the goods too."
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