Bianca Casady, or Coco of CocoRosie, is diving further into carnivalesque folk with Bianca Casady & The C.i.A.’s debut album, Oscar Hocks, out January 29 via JD Samson’s label Atlas Chair/FANTASYmusic. The 12-track LP is reminiscent of old-time-y saloon music with its pianos, organs, and violins layered over dissonant arrangements. “Lordess Moon” and “Poor Deal,” which employ sing-song lyrics like nursery rhymes along with Casady’s gnarled coo, emphasize that a fictional person is narrating the track; “Miracle of a Rose” and the title track, on the other hand, feature spoken-word poetry rather than singing.
The group released two videos from the LP, “Roadkill” and “Poor Deal,” and toured Europe at the end of 2015. The tour, “Porno Thietor,” was a musical-performance project, during which the characters’ stories from the album were narrated by various dancers on the stage. Meanwhile, Casady would sing their stories from the corners of the stage, rather than being front and center, directly singing to the audience. Casady has also created a book of poems, photographs, and so-called “fragments” — also named Porno Thietor — which is available with a vinyl purchase online and at live performances.
Listen to Oscar Hocks here, pre-order it over at the iTunes Store, and find the track list below.
Oscar Hocks track list:
1. “Hay Lofts”
2. “Daisy Chain”
3. “Hobo”
4. “Roadkill”
5. “Oscar Hocks”
6. “Dead Season”
7. “Poor Deal”
8. “Lordess Moon”
9. “Miracle of a Rose”
10. “Left Shoe”
11. “Tumbleweed”
12. “The Empty Room”
