Cacaw’s eponymous LP on Permanent Records was lovingly described by one critic as “noise rock brutality.” Minimal and groovy, they have become one of Chicago’s best-known underground bands. We spoke to one of their two bassists, Zack Weil, about his extensive collection of thrash metal and why Chicago rocks.
By Ananda Pellerin
Is the Chicago underground scene different to other cities? It’s totally different and it’s the best kept secret. In New York nobody cares because they’ve seen it all and they’re super jaded. But Chicago has more of a small town mentality. People are just really happy to be at shows. They get drunk, and they get into it if it’s loud and fun, nobody seems angry or pissed off that you’re playing, even if you suck.
So no pretensions? It’s a fucking rock band you know, what’s the pretence? There’s no money to be made in it, we just play loud, angry music because it’s what we like to play and it makes us happy and it makes friends happy and everyone has a good time. We wanna play; we want to be super heavy; we want everyone to freak out.
All the members of Cacaw have done time in other Chicago bands. Which were yours? I was in a band called Lovely Little Girls, there were a lot of prog elements but it was just really unhappy music, super-gross. I was also in a bunch of really crappy local bands, one called Hit the Trap, they were terrible.
What are your influences? High On Fire and Sleep, Nirvana, Jesus Lizard. The first Candlemass record blew my mind. I listen to thrash metal all the time. German thrash bands are my number one influence. Destruction, that’s the best band by far. Sodom, Kreator, they’re pretty awesome. Lesser known bands like Exhumer they’re cool, totally bizarre singer, he’s just inept and they have the worst lyrics. They all sing in broken English. I can’t get enough of it; it’s almost so bad that it’s poetic. They totally mean it and I love the fact that they mean it. They couldn’t be ironic. It was 1985, what was there to be ironic about? I want to mean it as much as they mean it. 
Cacaw on Permanent Records
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