Caroliner Exhibit: 23 Years Of Hernia Milk & Ergot Dreams

Curators Sarrita Hunn, Marcella Faustini, and The Museum of Viral Memory have collected 23 years of Caroliner Rainbow props, stage sets, ephemera and debris into one gallery- crammed together and black-lit for the finest in ergot-induced hallucination hullabaloo!

Formed in 1982, Caroliner channels the spirit of the Caroliner the Singing Bull, a nightmare vision of ergot-poisoned Wisconsin settlers of the 1800s. Through a mix of bluegrass, noise and punk drenched with pipe organ bombast and indecipherable caterwauling, these unknown funambulists have been providing the strangest, rawest sensory overloads for over two decades. With their dense and ramshackle black-lit day-glo atrocity stage sets, ritualistic performances and garbage-encrusted LPs, Caroliner is an experience...a fucked-up reality...rather than simply a band.

The exhibit opened on December 13th and runs until January 19th at California College Of The Arts' PLAySPACE gallery in San Francisco. There will be a closing reception on Saturday, January 13th with live performances by Luz Alibi and Georgio Marauder, Theremin Barney, Ploc Munster and Caroliner (their first performance in over a year).

For those unfamiliar with the Caroliner mythology- I first refer you to the show's catalog...or maybe the more comprehensible Wikipedia entry. Then go look at the many videos available over at Youtube:
Caroliner Clip One | Caroliner Clip Two | Caroliner Clip Three.

David Lim has a few of the best photos I have ever seen taken of Caroliner. As you can imagine, taking live band photography is bit hard when the only light source is ten black-lights at the foot of the stage. These photos really capture the vibrancy of the stage show (scroll left on the page).

Here are a couple live Caroliner tracks from their 2002 BIG SHOW! at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco...Track One | Track Two

Comments

[Brian Turner]

I hope Frank Chu endorses Caroliner's genius. Their Europa Club show in Greenpoint a few years back was so amazing.

[brian]

23 years of Inguinal hernia symptoms sounds amazing