It’s Casual Continue the Social Commentary Bus Rides

The It's Casual formula is simple: guitar, drums, scream. The results of this are guaranteed, a nesting fury and the inspired desire to punch a hole through the spacetime continuum. But in our modern age of bands over layering songs, It's Casual have cut themselves to the core, which is rather original if you look (and listen) around. "It's supposed to be simplistic. It's supposed to be true organic, to the fact that I'm not following any trends," frontman/guitarist Eddie Solis told Noisecreep. "I'm not following any scene and neither am I following any content trends in writing that sounds like everyone else. It's an extension of me, that's all it is."

There is no following for Solis in the sounds for the duo, including drummer W.C.E. But there is honoring where he came from. "My approach to music is like how I approach skateboarding," he said while taking a break from his day job as the general manager at Southern Lord Records. "That's the way I discovered hardcore punk rock in 1987 from renting all the skate videos -- all the Santa Cruz and Powell videos." He had to get a hold of those landmark punk albums. "'Who is this?' I'd put the VCR on pause and getting the pad and paper and writing all the names down. Of course they're all SST bands."

This of course led Solis to the discovery of Black Flag, Bl'ast! and the Minutemen. None of the local record stores carried these so he had to place special orders. "I come from a 'take all these steps to get what you need' or 'to make what you want to happen come to duration.'" There is something timeless and stuffed full of meaning in that pre-internet way of getting new music. Solis prefers to keep that spirit in It's Casual.

"My intention was to write simply what I see and keep it very minimal," Solis explains. "That way it's timeless. I'm not trying to date myself with anything. I'm looking at timeless song titles with very minimal lyrics." This defines the power duos last album 'The New Los Angeles,' which he says was designed to give the listener a feeling of what a 20 to 30 minute bus ride from his house is like.

But even though the album is built on the Los Angeles public transit system the social commentary of the album is true in every city. "No matter what city you're in you're gonna see stuff. It's all pretty universal." But the album is getting rereleased with a new cover, bonus songs taken from the same session, and a new name: 'The New Los Angeles I: Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider.'

At time of our conversation with Solis pre-production had begun on that's band's next album, a more in-depth sequel called 'The New Los Angeles II: Less Violence More Violins.' The album is described as the next level for the band bringing lush arrangements to the songs as well as more vivid lyrics. "It more interesting, more aggressive and angrier, but the lyrical context is so direct and strong," assures Solis.

The band's records are selling, in modest amounts, but for being a band not living on the road to find out their LPs sell as fans buy all three releases at once is a big deal, and Solis wouldn't have it any other way. "These people who are buying [these records] are really into it. I'd rather have that then people buying it and be 'Whatever, I'm onto something else now.'"