RUSSIAN CIRCLES :: LESS NOODLE, MORE POODLE

Story By Josh Barr and Photo by Selena Salfen

Russian Circles are giving this music thing the Clark Kent treatment. For now, anyway. By day, they're not reporters for fictitious newspapers, but barkeeps, shoe salesmen, and temp agency workers. One will even walk the hell out of your dog. But by night, they put down the leashes, dress shoes, and bottle openers for guitar, bass, and drumsticks. And while they don't rock capes, they might if you get 'em drunk enough.

Bassist Colin DeKuiper says Russian Circles are all smiles. And not from the vodka (they're from Chicago). "We're very happy to be in the situation we are," says DeKuiper. "We put out a record [2006's Enter on Flameshovel Records] that I think we're all very happy with, and we had wonderful people to help us make and support it."

For the uninitiated, Enter convincingly flaunts the band's seamless instrumental sonic stamp. Each track is more a journey than a brief trek, reaching airily soft ambient heights amongst densely sludgy leadenness, without ever losing its ever-excessive flow and baby's ass smoothness.

And DeKuiper says the Circles manage the lot without ever falling into math rock noodling. "Noodling is something that is probably best left out of a band's repertoire," says DeKuiper. "Yes can noodle all they want to, but the hippie jam bands should stay away from the noodles."

While they avoid the noodle, their live show is usually pretty damn dark and loud. Fans who saw their recent shows with Pelican, Young Widows, and Fear Before the March of Flames have the bloodied ears to prove it.

But before the stage came the studio, where the writing process is anything but routine. The only constants are that guitarist Mike Sullivan starts with a still malleable guitar part that the three—rounded out by drummer Dave Turncrantz—then build around and flesh out into a song.

DeKuiper adds, "Then we usually rewrite it a few or five times." Rewriting costs pencils but makes for great listening.

For more info, go to: russiancircles.net