Saying what Capraesque is … isn’t as easy as saying what we aren’t. Capraesque isn’t emo. Or punk. Or alt-folk. Our members come from diverse backgrounds in rock, classical and jazz and flavors of all of these can be found in our evolving sound of wit and angst, dark and light. Our music is intricate and lush and we use it to tell stories.

Unapologetically cinematic in scope, our songs run an emotional gamut from acidic jibes to heartbreaking vulnerability, from exploration of the Grand Themes to the minutia of everyday life. Basically we can’t sit still, swinging between polar extremes of mood and tempo. Songs like “Key Limelight” and “In Search Of” showcase our rock and pop side while mini-epics “Interstate” and “Nueva Vida” are evidence of our feel for the atmospheric and forlorn. And there’s still room for the quirk of numbers like “Sweet Mollyanne, Wastrel of the Workhouse” and “Bela Lugosi and the Question of Love” or the cocktail swagger of the ballad “My Most Elegant Reason.”

But the “blurb friendly” way to describe our sound is: “Capraesque is like the Jayhawks meet the Decemberists while making out in the back of a clown car driven by Elvis Costello, who’s really flooring it because he just ran over Coldplay.” According to Brendan, that is.

We have fun on stage and we think it shows, but part of the fun is shifting gears, wacky when appropriate and solemn as the songs dictate. We’d like to think that Capraesque is akin to an evening of deeply satisfying channel-surfing – a tale for any mood or mindset.

HOW WE CAME TO BE:

Brendan, Patrick and Jerry, three Texas boys with nothing to lose but their dignity, were once the core of the wacky prog-rock megalith known as Zsu-Zsu’s Petals, a group that made an odd yet undeniable splash down in Houston a while ago.

All three went our separate ways for a good long stretch until Fate and the Bush White House brought us back together again in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, a chunk of years and even more miles from the ZZP days. Joined by the inestimable Rachel Floyd on cello, Dan Eckis on drums and Chris Hale on bass, we are knee-deep in the creation of this new thing called Capraesque. It’s a project that very much reflects who we are now and how far we’ve come.

So lend a generous ear to our songs and watch this space for upcoming announcements and show dates!