Live Band Karaoke Makes Atlanta Comeback

I seem to remember liking the Atlanta band Del Venicci, who were briefly active around town six or seven years ago. Subsequent to their split, singer Grace Bellury recruited a new dude crew hand-picked from other bands – Tymb Gratz (Mood Rings) on guitar, Chris Yonker (Omni, Hello Ocho) on bass, Adrian Switon (Shepherds, Jock Gang) on drums and audio engineer Zach Pyles (Improvement Movement, Culture Culture) on synths – for her current focus, a quintet called Karaoke. And they’ve just released a new album cheerily called Blood, Piss, Religion, Pain. Apparently there’s also a song by that name (inspired not by an obscure Andres Serrano art installation but by Bellury’s menstrual cycle), but alas, it was left off the finished tracklisting.

As it was with Del Venicci, Bellury’s voice is the centerpiece of Karaoke’s pieces, so there’d be a clear musical connection to that earlier band even if the music wasn’t so similar…which it tends to be, although notably less so on BPRP than their 2018 debut EP, How to Make You Boil. Sure, it’s dreamy in large part but less connected to dream-pop or anything recognizably rock; it’s starker, a little thornier and artsier and strenuous on the nerves. More like visitations from a droopy spirit realm where nobody smiles but is instead afflicted with uncontrollable facial tics. The album can be downloaded via Karaoke’s Bandcamp page, and as with Boil they’re also putting it out on a limited run of cassettes… because who doesn’t love cassettes?

Like Del Venicci, Karaoke is quite fond of creating music videos for their curious little ditties. So far, five of BPRP’s eight songs have accompanying videos, and in most cases – such as the perspective-twisting clips for “Bad Christian” and “Ride Off Into the Doom” – the simple videos are more interesting and fun than the songs themselves. Wanna rock out with these hairy hellions? You’re in luck – I hear they’re playing a big New Year’s Eve blowout with Team Trivia, Open Mic and TBA!