It's easy to imagine why Vic Buell of Calliope may want to start a side project. Calliope's signature brand of heady, circus-ring psych-rock is so unmistakable that it doesn't always leave a lot of room for moonlighting—anything that band performs is going to sound like a Calliope song.
With his new project Vinz Clortho, Buell stretches out a bit and tries on a related but distinctly different sound, a moodier, bluesier, dreamier psychedelic slow drip that sounds right out of The Roadhouse from Twin Peaks (don't call it the Bang Bang Bar).
The group features some kindred spirits from overlapping circles of the Riverwest rock scene, including mainstay Myles Coyne and members of Mortgage Freeman and Castle Thunder, and has so far released a couple of tracks, the trippy "Coral Was the Red," with singer Cookie Johnson, and the sax-driven, surf-music-by-way-of-the-Black-Lodge instrumental "Snake Eyes."
You can stream both below ahead of the group's debut show at Company Brewing on Saturday, Aug. 12 with Devil Met Contention and Abby Jeanne.
