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Friday, October 4, 2024 
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edited by michael goldbergcontact


Fast And Rude With The Casual Dots

"I suppose I wanted to play music people could dance to," offers singer/guitarist Christina Billotte, when asked about her initial hopes for her latest rock 'n' roll combo, the Casual Dots. Which is probably to imply that her main band of the moment, Quix*o*tic, isn't a place for dancing. In that band, Billotte's influences — girl groups, surf guitar, old soul, horror films — end up coming out in minor-key tunes, over which she and sister Myra hit glowing harmonies. The Dots, however, play the bat a little straighter. Whilst Billotte's particular, idiosyncratic style imbues the band with her unmistakable aesthetic, the Casual Dots' rhythmic rock 'n' roll is more reminiscent of Slant 6, the anglo/art-punks Billotte fronted over two fine albums on Dischord in the mid-'90s.

Slant 6 was Billotte's second band, coming, in her very impressive discographical lineage, after Autoclave, a pre-riot-grrrl turn-of-the-'90s combo fronted by a very young Mary Timony and an even younger Billotte. By the late '90s, Billotte'd joined up with her sister to form Quix*o*tic; but, even as the second Quix*o*tic album, Mortal Mirror, found the combo greeting greater acclaim, Billotte still yearned to indulge in her love of the "project band." And so began the Casual Dots, in an inception familiar to the songwriter.

"I suppose there was sort of a feeling that this was a project band, but every band I've been in has started that way," Billotte says. "Quix*o*tic's first time playing was a project band show. There were about eight acts, and everyone played 1-3 songs. Slant 6 played its first show on a dare from [Nation of Ulysses bassist] Steve Gamboa. Myra and I had been playing a little bit in a practice space for about two weeks. We were at a diner one night and he dared us to play at a Nation of Ulysses show that was going on the next night. We told him we didn't have a drummer and he said he'd play drums for us, thinking we'd never do it. At the time he was the bass player for NOU and hadn't really ever played drums. We said OK, practiced the next day with him and played. It was a total mess."

The Casual Dots were initially going to be a project for Billotte and former Bikini Kill members Kathi Wilcox and Tobi Vail. Eventually, the combo ended up being Billotte and Wilcox on guitars, with Deep Lust drummer Steve Dore on percussion. "Steve, Kathi, and I had played just a couple times, making noise in the practice space when, in the summer of 2002, Kathi booked a show with Ladyfest DC, and then we wrote some songs," recalls Billotte. "The Washington Post was doing an article about the upcoming event, and wanted the picture to be of us for some reason, so we had to come up with a name fast. Then we remembered 'The Casual Dots' and it turned out all three of us had always liked that name."

The name "The Casual Dots" originally "belonged" to former Bikini Kill guitarist Billy Karen, a reference to some form of offhand graffiti using dot stickers instead of spray paint. With a name in place, the Dots took the transition from project to real band, and a year after their debut at Ladyfest they set about recording their debut disc. Produced by Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, the self-titled set finds the trio convening over a set of skeletal rock 'n' roll (although it stops halfway through to let Billotte belt out a beautiful cover of Etta James' I'll Dry My Tears). The album essentially captures a band in its infancy, still forging an identity.

"My favorite thing about the Casual Dots record is the fact that 'Clocks' [which you can currently download off the Neumu homepage under 'Gramophone'] and 'Hooded' were basically written in the studio," Billotte says, referring to the two standout tracks on the album. "We had parts we'd been playing in practice, but I hadn't figured out what I should play to them. Kathi and Steve wanted to record them anyway, so I just played over them, not knowing exactly what I was going to do. I thought 'Clocks' was going to be an instrumental, but then everyone was like 'There's two weeks until we mix, write some lyrics for it.' The whole record was kind of like that. It came together fast, and there wasn't much time to deliberate about it." — Anthony Carew [Tuesday, April 20, 2004]


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John Vanderslice Kicks Genre

Paul Duncan's Elusive Pop

Stephen Yerkey's Wandering Songs

French Kicks Complete 'Two Thousand'

Spazzy Romanticism: Love Story In Blood Red

Brain Surgeons NYC Rock The Big Questions

Jarboe's 'Men' Charts Turbulent Emotions

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Minus Five: Booze, Betrayal, Bibles and Guns

New Compilation Spotlights Forgotten Folk Guitar Heroes

Chris Brokaw's Experiment In Pop

Old And New With Death Vessel

Silver Jews: Salvation And Redemption

Jana Hunter's Beautiful Doom

Vashti Bunyan Finds Her Voice Again

Nick Castro's Turkish Folk Delight

Katrina Hits New Orleans Musicians Hard

Paula Frazer's Eerie Beauty

The National Find Emotional Balance

Death Cab For Cutie's New Album, Tour

Heavy Trash's Rockabilly Rampage

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Devendra Banhart, Andy Cabic Launch Label

Lydia Lunch's Noir Seductions

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PDX Pop Now! Fest Announces Lineup

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Jennifer Gentle's Joyful Psyche

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Mia Doi Todd's Beautiful Collaboration

Return of the Gang of Four

Martha Wainwright Finds Her Voice

Brian Jonestown Massacre's Acid Joyride

Solo Disc Due From Pixies' Frank Black

Heartless Bastards' Big-Hearted Rock

Mike Watt's Midlife Journey

The Black Swans Balance Old And New

Nicolai Dunger's Swedish Blues

The Insomniacs' Hard-Edged Pop

Yo La Tengo Collection Due

Juana Molina's 'Homemade' Sound

Beans Evolves

Earlimart's Songs Of Loss

Devendra Banhart's 'Mosquito Drawings'

Negativland Rerelease 'Helter Stupid'

Alina Simone Transforms The Ordinary

Sounds From Nature: Laura Veirs

Octet's Fractured Electric Pop

Sleater-Kinney Working With Lips Producer

The Cult Of Silkworm

The Evolution Of The Concretes

Devendra Banhart's Exuberant New Songs

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Gram Rabbit's Desert Visions

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Jarboe's Many Voices

Phil Elvrum's Long Hard Winter

First U.S. Release For Vashti Bunyan Album

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Le Tigre Protest The Bush War Presidency

Joel RL Phelps: Bleak Songs Rock Hard

Time Tripping With Galaxie 500

Patti Smith Wants Bush Out!

Sharron Kraus: A New Kind Of Folk Music

The Fiery Furnaces' Psychedelic Theater

Harder, Heavier Burning Brides

Sonic Youth's Ongoing Experiment

The Dt's Do It Their Way

Poster Children Cover Political Rock

Rare Thelonious Monk Recordings Due

Uneasy Pop From dios

Beck, Lips, Waits Cover Daniel Johnston

Understanding Franz Ferdinand

The Truly Amazing Joanna Newsom

Mylab's Boundary-Crossing Experiments In Sound

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The 'Magical Realism' Of Vetiver

The Restless, Rootsy Songs Of Eszter Balint

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Devendra Banhart To Tour U.S.

The East/West Fusion Sounds Of Macha

Destroyer Gets Mellow For Your Blues

TV On The Radio Get Political

Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse To Play Lollapalooza 2004

New Music From The Fall

Apocalyptic Sound From The Intelligence

Fast And Rude With The Casual Dots

'Rejoicing' With Devendra Banhart

New Album, Tour From The Polyphonic Spree

Shearwater Take Wing

Sleater-Kinney To Tour East/West Coasts

Resurrecting Rocket From The Tombs

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Funkstörung's 'Cut-Up' Theory

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Sun Kil Moon To Tour U.S., Europe

Nothin' But The Truth From The Von Bondies

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Xiu Xiu's 'Reality' Rock

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Beth Orton, M. Ward Make Sadness Taste Sweet

Oneida's Pathway To Ecstasy

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Ani DiFranco Tells It Like It Is

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Pixies Reunite For U.S., European Tours

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The Frames Accept Your Love

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A Solo Detour For Ladybug Transistor's Sasha Bell

Return Of The Old 97's

Spending The Night With Damien Rice

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The Evolution Of 'A Silver Mt. Zion'

Neil Young Rocks Australia With 'Greendale'

Poster Children Back In Action

'The Great Cat Power Disaster Of 2003'

Chicks On Speed's Subversive Strategies

Oranger At A Crossroad

Peaches On Tour And In Control

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Modest Mouse Touring; Album Due in 2004

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Vic Chesnutt Speaks His Mind

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Death Cab's Transatlanticism On The Way

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The Minus 5 Get Down With Wilco

Tywanna Jo Baskette's Southern-Gothic Rock

Xiu Xiu's Stewart Takes On 'Gay-bashing'

Portishead Producer Resurfaces Behind New Diva

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs To Tour West Coast

Sonic Youth, Erase Errata Kick Off 'Buddy Series'

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Damien Rice In The 'Here And Now'

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ATP-NY Postponed 'Til At Least 2004

The Soul Of Chris Lee

Gits' Frenching The Bully To See Re-Release

Stephen Malkmus Is In Control

Superchunk To Release Rarities Set; Teenage Girls To Swoon As A Result

Summer Touring For The Gossip

Babbling On About Deerhoof

Irish Song Poet Damien Rice's O Released In U.S.

Chatting With ATP's Barry Hogan

Former Digable Planets Frontman Surfaces With Cherrywine

ATP L.A. Festival Rescheduled For Fall

Freakwater's Janet Bean Takes A Solo Turn

Lee's 'Cool Rock'

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Mark Romanek's 'Hurt' Revives Johnny Cash's Career

The Rapture's Post-Punk, Post-Dance Sound

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Spring Tour For Jolie Holland (Plus A Live Album)

Liz Phair Still Pushing The Limits

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Young People's War Prayers On The Way



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