Circus Lupus - 1990 9 Song Demo Lp [Discord]

One early supporter of the band described the new group as “profoundly familiar yet uncategorizable. Like if the Germs had gone to college and never got pulled into hard drugs and suicidal behaviors.” 

Before Circus Lupus landed on DC’s venerable Dischord Records, the group’s original Midwest lineup recorded a full LP's worth of songs less than a year after forming. With the demise of DC’s Ignition in the late 80’s, bass player Chris Thomson headed to Madison, WI for college. Before leaving DC, he dove headfirst into being a vocalist fronting the short- lived throwback punk/hardcore project Fury. Chris served up pointed and profound Tony Cadena-inspired screeds about betrayal, disappointment and poseurs all set to a soundtrack of furiously primitive and chaotic music supplied by members of the DC punk band Swiz. Brief yet influential, this band marked Chris’s switch to vocals, putting him on course to front Circus Lupus and claim a notable spot in the DC punk timeline of the late 20th century. 

Soon after arriving in Madison, Thomson was invited to join a new project started by friends Chris Hamley, Arika Casebolt, and Reg Shrader. Circus Lupus marked a change in direction from the familiar sounds of DC punk that Thomson had been associated with for years. The newly formed group looked to noisier Touch & Go and Homestead bands for inspiration, aligning themselves with bands from Chicago, Louisville and Milwaukee. One early supporter of the band described the new group as “profoundly familiar yet uncategorizable. Like if the Germs had gone to college and never got pulled into hard drugs and suicidal behaviors.” 

The original Circus Lupus lineup played a dozen shows and recorded these songs with Eli Janney at Inner Ear studios in August of 1990 while on a brief tour. Within a year, the band would decide to permanently relocate to Washington DC, where they felt they had more opportunities. Reg opted to move to Chicago and would ultimately join the Touch and Go band Seam. Old friend Seth Lorinczi (Vile Cherubs) would become their new bass player, forming the version of the band that most listeners are familiar with. 
While a few of these ended up on their first single, the rest were shelved, some later to be rerecorded with Seth and released on Dischord. LG Records is proud to have helped this notable recording see the light of day. The original tapes were recovered by Ian MacKaye and transferred by Darren Edwards. Tim Green remixed and remastered the original recordings at Louder Studios in California. 180-gram black vinyl with 28pt Tip-On sleeve and heavy printed inner jacket.

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Circus Lupus was formed by former Ignition bassist Chris Thomson while he in school in Madison, Wisconsin. This was Chris' first time singing and not only did it turn out that he was a solid lyricist, but the music that the band created seemed a perfect setting for his pointed diatribes. The original lineup released a 7" on Cubist Records (a label out of Pittsburgh), but the bass player left the band when they decided to relocate to Washington, D.C. He was replaced by Seth Lorinczi (ex-Vile Cherubs) and this line-up would stay together until 1993.

Circus Lupus released two albums on Dischord, "Super Genius" (1992) and "Solid Brass" (1993), as well as a single produced by Joan Jett, who had become a fan of the band. This was one of Jett’s first production jobs since she went into the studio with The Germs in 1979.

When Circus Lupus split up, Casebolt, Lorinczi, and Hamley stayed together and played under the name Antimony, while Thomson formed a new band with ex-Fidelity Jones members Dug E. Bird and Jerry Busher called Las Mordidas. A few years later, Hamley and Thomson would reunite in a band called The Monorchid.