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Caustic Casanova pays tribute to Rush's Time Stand Still in new Show Some Shame music video

Mon, Oct 19, 2015@1:38PM | comments

Washington D.C. based rock band Caustic Casanova released their new album Breaks back on September 25th, and today debuted the music video for the album's 2nd track Show Some Shame. The video is of interest to Rush fans because it is a not-so-subtle tribute to Rush's iconic music video for Time Stand Still, which released 28 years ago today on October 19, 1987. The video is a detailed reproduction of the Rush video right down to the band's outfits and choreography, the floating band special effects, and the frustrated camerawoman (originally played by backup vocalist Aimee Mann in the Rush video). It even includes a Chronicles-inspired title screen and exit screen with the following message:

We thank Geddy, Alex and Neil for over 40 years of timeless music. Freeze this moment a little bit longer

You can watch the video below or on YouTube at this location and find out more about Caustic Casanova via their website, Facebook page and Twitter page. The band defines their sound as eclectic heavy space rock and they are currently on an extensive US tour.

You can also read bass player Francis Beringer's essay about the video and his love of Rush below ...

"Show Some Shame" by Caustic Casanova - a video tribute to "Time Stand Still" by Rush
essay by Francis Beringer

Rush is my favorite band. Rush is the first band that made me want to play bass, and Rush is the first band that made me want to write music and form a band of my own. Neil, Geddy and Alex were my first heroes who weren't baseball players. When I was in school Rush's music was my secret weapon against the loneliness, discontent, and confusion of my teenage years (cue the opening synth line in "Subdivisions"). Songs like "The Pass" gave me something to latch onto when my life felt adrift and unrelentingly hopeless - from endless bullying in high school through the death of my father right at the end of my teens. The insanity of the music, the relentless perfection in the playing and the creativity and disregard for the "rules" in the songwriting made me feel invincible and inspired, and over time became such a part of my psyche that I felt compelled to try and replicate the feeling through music of my own. My band Caustic Casanova - where I play bass and sing and write songs - became my life's obsession and the place where I could grow the seeds that Rush had so firmly planted in my brain. Despite the fact that Rush is one of the best-selling rock bands on earth, there is a peculiarity to their sound and an intimacy to Neil Peart's lyrics that makes them seem like a band just for you. This is a sentiment you hear over and over from Rush fans - it seems like they wrote this song for me, or made this record just for me. They have an unbreakable bond with their die hard fans because of this totally unique and irreplicable characteristic - the music is so maddeningly complex and engaging, but also so memorable and catchy and intensely personal for the listener. Get some Rush mega-nerds together and you barely contain the excited electricity in the conversation as we dissect our favorite riffs and lyrics - it's just for us.

Rush are also really silly guys. They're funny and smart and goofy in a Monty Python sort of way - and if you think of yourself similarly it's hard not to be captivated by their personalities if you're into their music. The extent and breadth of their collective sense of humor is only really apparent, however, if you dig deep into their live shows and interviews where their personalities shine through. Like so many of us who so identify with them, they've also had various "awkward" growth periods - which have been reflected in their, um, questionable fashion choices over the years and in their music videos. Which leads us to the video for "Time Stand Still" off 1987's Hold Your Fire. It is truly one of the strangest music videos ever made (some killjoys would say it's the worst music video of the 80's). Some say it was simply director Zbigniew Rybczyński's abuse of the then-new "green screen" technology. To me, it always seemed (at least in part) to be a piece of comic absurdist art - both "so bad it's great" and "so odd you have no idea what to make of it." Watching the members of Rush "fly" awkwardly around the studio set and play music with various natural scenes as backdrops used to make me laugh so much, I'd rewind the Chronicles VHS tape and watch the shots unfold ludicrously over and over again. I've shown the "Time Stand Still" music video to everyone I know who has the slightest interest in Rush to make sure they've seen it and know of its insane glory. It's such a ridiculous intersection of earnestness (their performances, their gazes, their clothes and of course the song and lyrics) and self-effacing strangness (everything else about the video) that I think it represents Rush well.

Probably as a result of being in a band with me, Stefanie (drums/vocals) and Andrew (guitar) have become bigger Rush fans over time. When I pitched this long held fantasy idea of mine, of recreating this music video for one our songs, they immediately were sold on it. We - like Rush - have a shared goofy sense of humor that may not always translate in our often quite "serious" heavy and progressive music. A music video like this a great outlet for the outlandish side of our band's personality. And "Show Some Shame" was the perfect song - it's one of only two short songs on our new album Breaks, and it has not dissimilar opening section to "Time Stand Still," and at the core of the chorus is a three syllable phrase, again, just like "Time Stand Still." When we were able to convince director Mark Lieberman (Andrew's best friend and a visual effects/post production professional) to make the video, I knew we were going to do something memorable. He was able the capture the vibe and style of the emerging special effects technology in 1987 perfectly, adding VHS style warping for extra retro effect. He and his crew put in a lot of work for a very silly video idea and it shows - I think it's a pretty spot on tribute. Having old friend Emily Nicholas (of NYC's amazing band Emily Danger) was the final touch in this homage to Rush. She looks quite like Aimee Mann (who sang the choruses on "Time Stand Still) and was really into the concept. I think re-creating the "Time Stand Still" video for our song "Show Some Shame" is one of the weirdest things a band has ever done, possibly weirder than the original video. My secret hope is that someday Rush sees our insane little tribute to them and think "now this is three people that really get what Rush is all about." We made this video for us to enjoy and for Rush fans to laugh at, but in large part we made it just for Neil, Geddy and Alex, as a way of thanking them for 40 years of inspiring music. Just like they made so much music just for us.

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