Caleb Lionheart

Kris Wild, Tony Bucci, Richard 'Jay' Hayman, Mike Cox and Craig Jaufmann of Caleb Lionheart in the "Lion's Den"

If you lived in Albany or the Capital Region, you’ve known at least on of the bands lead singer Tony Bucci has been in. Fabulous Funky Freedom (still have the shirt), The Titans and the longest lasting Pom Pom Death. It not because the lead singer and guitarist is scattered-brained or anything, it’s just that he has a lot to say and so many different ways he want to say it. Now, he’s focused on Caleb Lionheart.

While Bucci could be viewed as the driving force as main lyricist, the band would be nowhere without Wild, Jay, Craig and Mike and nowhere near as fun. Caleb Lionheart is many things at once: socially conscious (Bucci is going for his M.A. in History) and always up for a good time (It was always a good night when there was a show at the Lion’s Den). They think hardcore and play pop punk.

Now before I get into their music, I have to explain how I come to know Caleb Lionheart. The previous bands featured were pretty big names in Albany, but rest of these bands I know the members pretty well. Most music blogs will tell you they’ve started getting into a band and talk about how good the music is, but here at the ones who are mad to live, we’re gonna tell you if gonna have fun drinking beers with the guys. And yes, yes you would.

My freshman year in college I lived in the same hall/dorm as Jonny from the Peeps, Chris of Aficionado / The Rain in Spain, Ben of the former Fabulous Funky Freedom.  Tony was just around the corner. It was a great introduction to a wide variety of music. Tony’s friend Kris transferred to our school a year later as a fellow English major.

Tony and Kris (and well I think most of the band) are from Troy, which is the home to Herman Mellville, Kurt Vonnegut and a really bad attempt at urban renewal. The lyrics of Caleb Lionheart reflects the proud literary tradition of Troy and young adults trying to figure navigate the their way around the socio-economic problems of their hometown and the rest of the world.

The band also eschews being just another hardcore band, which the Capital Region quite enough of. The songs are catchy, you can usually sing and/or shout along while not being shy of their hardcore background and influences (Saves the Day, for example).

Or you know, I’m just going to let Bucci explain it, and quote from the bands’ current mission statement on they myspace page:

Does it really matter if we play “pop punk?” Aren’t Propogandhi and Strike Anywhere “pop-punk” bands? From where I’m standing it’s all bat tattoos and sing-a-longs, and that’s all I’d ever want it to be.

Back to the music. The band had a previous EP: Make Believe which was acoustic. For this post I’m going to focus on the Think Hardcore, Play Pop Punk EP, which I think is a better representation of the band.

It opens up with “Adrenaline” which gets your adrenaline raised kicking off with some feedback and a mass of sound. Bucci enters in, with a critique of American placidity while violence surrounds them,  both in the past and present. Bucci’s voice is full of passion in every line and this passion continues throughout the album. The song ends with a clip from the documentary, The War on Democracy as said by Chilean woman:

“I don’t believe there is any torture in this country, because you understand one thing: why torture somebody when you can shoot them?”

The EP continues on with “Home.” The story of this song is nothing new. For every shitty town there’s a song about how people try to escape. Lionheart how ever makes the song specific to the Capital Region:

They said “You’re never gunna go… /
You went off to college and found Albany /
45 minutes away from home.”

The three previous lines are the story of far too many college students in the area. RPI, SUNY Albany and the St. Rose are colleges to go to. (A school in NYC? You ask. Most wouldn’t be in Albany if they could afford NYC or Columbia.) 20-somethings are trapped in an area with very little culture outside of music and art made by themselves, very little way to make money– much less enough to leave. The song serves as anthem for natives of Albany with a chant of “We’re never going home” for those, like Caleb Lionheart, who plan on never giving up on finding a way out.

Song number three is “Vultures,” slightly rougher than previous songs, with the guttural chant of a crowd asking “What will become of us?” The song is a simple meditation on time passing, and people dying. Easily one of the catchiest songs the band has written so far.  Following that is “Keep Time, Lose Track” a short interlude track that serves as a counterpoint to the previous song, I’ll post the lyrics, as it’s good example of Tony’s lyrical abilities:

History will hold our names on the tip of its tongue /
Or clench its teeth at the mere mention of us /
And the scars filled with ink on his arms and legs /
Will tell of words we screamed to mid-summer days /
Years ago, I never thought this was mine for the taking /
Now I know, I will never grow weary /
Of hearing a back beat pounding out my ears.

“Rules of Attraction” returns listeners to another social critique: this time the absurdity of our generation sexual and romantic relationships, especially during our college years. 

“The Circus We’ve Become” is a great close to the EP, centered around a complicated relationship with time. The speaker is nostalgic for a place he is dead set on leaving. The crowd only adds to the nostalgia, as any listener can imagine themselves singing along. (And there probably that don’t have to imagine.)

To be fair to readers and the guys in the band, I do have one criticism. Sometimes there is too much stuff. Occasionally, Tony is more Melville and less Vonnegut, and fights to finish a line. The same can be said of the instrumentation, but that may also be something about the hardcore genre that I just don’t like in general.

That said: they also made a convert out of me. Also to set things in perspective for naysayers: Caleb Lionheart is a relatively new band (One? Two years?), full of self-taught (well, at least not classically trained) and only have been recently been singed to Farewell Party Records. Most people don’t encounter bands until they have a set image and a record label behind them. They sound pretty damn impressive for people with just two EPs out if you ask me.

But this all just the E.P. and the music. The live show is what really gets you hooked on the band. It’s just them on stage playing music, hanging out like the friends they, and a bunch of college guys and girls sweating it out in the audience as they rock out. It’s pure rock.

The best way to describe Caleb Lionheart is they capture the determination of garage rock band that everyone had in their town, with some great talent and an adult, but not overly cynical, view of the world. At the end of the day you’re singing along or you’re not.

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Caleb Lionheart
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