by Dan Vierck
January 2008
The Scarring Party could be the set up to a joke wherein a tuba, banjo and an accordion take the stage. They could be a Tenacious D, a Juiceboxxx or a Macho Man Randy Savage rap album, but they’re not. They are a bizarre exercise in the defiance of time. They are practitioners of parallelisms, administers of allegory and subtle masters of musicianship. They could soon be the undisputed new big thing of Wisconsin. For now though, they are simply Milwaukee’s two-year-old four piece, neo-vaudevillian folk-pop favorites.
“With all that stuff [we bring] on stage it’s almost like prop comedy, to some people” Daniel Bullock, songwriter of the group says, “and that’s why they look down their noses at it.” What’s clever banter on stage, becomes coffeehouse quips in, well, a coffeehouse with tuba player Isa Carini and percussionist Chris Roberts backing him up there too. “I think when you’re in an acoustic band,” Bullock continues, “the way you create tonal difference is by pulling out new instruments. There’s always more stuff that can make it different, you know? It’s never a matter of getting a new pedal or something, it’s always a matter of ‘Oh my god, now I’ve got to like, build this thing’ or ‘I’ve got to rub this instrument against that instrument to make this totally different sound.’ People think it’s novelty, but really it’s just…”
“I think people get into it too, the instrumentation” percussionist Chris Roberts adds. “They’ll be like, ‘Wow, there’s a tuba on stage’, maybe I’ll watch this band. Not just like a typical rock band.” Indeed, typical rock band they are not.
