Social Caterpillar Plays New Material At Company Brewing
Experimental band Social Caterpillar kicked off Company’s show Friday evening, playing along with Baton Rouge group Thou and LA singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle. The Riverwest eatery got packed from the stage to the door with a crowd receptive to the eccentrically artful music of the night.
Social Caterpillar is a four-piece outfit made up of vocalist/guitarist Kyle Smith, violinist Eric David, drummer “Whisper Crystal” (Derek), and bassist/sampler “Lazer” (Eli Smith). Their debut 2017 album “Welcome to the Petting Zoo” featured lo-fi somberness, some electronic sampling, and lush violin movements. 2018 saw the release of their EP with Utajahs titled “Motorcycle in Three Movements.”
Much of the material played in their set is off their upcoming new album. Kyle Smith describes their new album as far more collaborative than their previous work, adding that every band member contributed to the songwriting.
“A lot of the material is about the past five years in life and everything that’s happened.”
A screen featuring tape loops of driving through various landscapes in black and white accompanied the band’s set. Visual artist and friend of the band Michael Lagerman developed the concept.
Kyle Smith weighs on the band’s instrumentation and formation.
“Eric and I always played together when I first moved here. He’s always played violin to songs that I wrote. And then we slowly began adding more people. Derek and I lived together and I asked him if he wanted to play drums, and then we asked Eli if he wanted to play bass, and then it evolved into each of us doing our own thing. Like Eli does more sample stuff and Eric and I would play more acoustic. It’s different but kind of the same.”
Social Caterpillar plans to mix and master their new songs within the next few weeks and have a release show at some point. The title of their project is yet to be announced. In the meantime, they play Quarters on May 8th and Bremen on May 18th.
