Now split between Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma, Casual Hex return with new album Zig Zag Lady Illusion II (arriving June 13 via Youth Riot Records)—the politically charged sonic continuation of their first full-length.
The band has been quiet since the 2018 release of their weirdo post-punk monolith Zig Zag Lady Illusion, and—despite being one of Seattle’s best bands at the time—went dormant for years. That is until last month, when they surprise-released the psychedelic music video for “The System,” announcing Zig Zag Lady Illusion II.
From the very beginning of their relationship, core band members Erica Miller (guitar) and Jessie Odell (bass) had plans to create music together. “Jessie and I have known each other since middle school. We had high school guitar class together and talked about moving to Portland to start a band,” explains Miller of her and Odell’s time growing up in Maryland.
Miller did end up in Portland post-high school, with Odell heading to Seattle. Convinced of their need to start a band, Miller was driving up and down the I-5 corridor until relocating to the Emerald City. The foundation was immediately laid for Casual Hex once Miller moved to Seattle in 2015. “I was introduced to [drummer] Nick Anderson the day I moved to Seattle. The three of us hung out at Cafe Presse, then jammed until four in the morning,” remembers Miller. “That was basically the inception of us playing music together; it was meant to be.”
Anderson moved to New York and no longer plays with Casual Hex, though he was essential in getting the band to where it is today. “He played on the first album, and we did a European tour with him,” says Odell. “We miss him.” “It was really hard for us to find a new drummer that was
a good fit,” laments Miller. “Me, Jessie, and Nick were best friends, hanging
out constantly.”
Finding the right person to join a band, especially when the group is already an album deep, is like finding a drumstick in a haystack—it’s not easy, but when it happens, you lock in immediately. After playing with several drummers—including Anthony Beauchemin of J.R.C.G., and Fiona Moonchild, who played with Scott Yoder—Casual Hex enlisted Keegan Wiltshire into the band in January of this year. He and Odell also play in Seattle garage band the Nags; once the three were able to meet and jam together, it was a no-brainer asking Wiltshire to join Casual Hex
permanently.
Between a rotating cast of drummers, Miller’s move back down to Portland, and the pandemic, a seven-year gap separating the band’s two full-lengths is understandable, perhaps even necessary. Zig Zag Lady Illusion II continues the band’s black-mirroring of society’s existential collapse. The absurdity of expectations placed upon individuals ranking lower in the currently resolidifying caste system, when those at the top need not worry about laws or the lives of other humans, is not lost on Casual Hex.
Nowhere on the album is this more potently felt than on the opening track and first single, “The System.” Miller’s deadpan continually asks both the listener and the powers that be, “Can you tell us why it’s all a disguise?” The human answer here is no, no one can say why world powers like the United States continually fund genocide around the globe when issues such as houselessness and gun violence in this country have become epidemics. The capitalistic answer to the question is money and power—trite desires that should pale in comparison to the need for building community and expanding social resources. That same line can also be read as Miller asking, “Can you tell us why?” and then immediately answering her own question: “It’s all a disguise.” The lyricism here is unbelievably nuanced while remaining completely relatable to every person who isn’t a billionaire.
“Samuel Joner II” shares a name with the “Samuel Joner” track on ZZLI—both are mid-album noise-psych freakouts akin to the more experimental Sonic Youth offerings of the mid-’90s. It acts as a palate cleanser between the two sides of the record. Not that the A and B sides are departures from one another; rather, the “Samuel Joner” tracks offer a moment without vocals for the listener to absorb and process.
Album favorite “Active Wire” heralds the beginning of Zig Zag Lady Illusion II’s second half with the frightening statement: “We found fear and our bodies were inside.” Are our bodies inside our own fears? Do we fear the Self to the point of alienation and isolation? These questions can’t immediately be answered by the collective, but must first be reckoned with by the individual—only then can we address and eventually live with our Selfs and the Selfs of others.
Noisy late-album meisterwerk “No A” sums up the album’s themes with deft precision when Miller repeats, “Power, control, and ammunition,” over the angular drones of guitar, bass, and percussion. Not conceptually dissimilar from Janet Jackson’s meteoric 1986 single “Control,” “No A” finds the band seeking emancipation from established and would-be systems of oppression—understanding and acknowledging what it means and will take to become completely autonomous.
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Casual Hex play two Seattle release shows: June 12 at Sonic Boom Records and June 13 at Clock-Out Lounge. Zig Zag Lady Illusion II drops June 13 via Seattle’s Youth Riot Records.