Cara Van Thorn: “Rage”

Lookin’ to rage this Memorial Day? Well we’ve got something that you might not’ve expected but’ll definitely do the trick.

And that’s in reference to Austin’s Cara Van Thorn, initially born from Donkey Island ex-pats Adam Donovan and Carrie Stephens who continue to spearhead what is now a six-person wagon train. Since Fall 2019, this whimsical, bristly cavalcade’s become a common sight in modern swing circles, but their penchant for upbeat prohibition-era Jazz has always been leveled out with starker styles of rock, specifically ’90s Alternative and ’80s Goth.

And boy did the latter sound steal the show on Cara Van Thorn’s latest single, “Rage”, that just swept through last Friday. Between a menacing theremin, some absolutely disgusting synth bass, simplistic-yet-sinister percussion, subtly tense horn chords, and ominous lyrics that effortless shift between first and second person (further enhanced by additional vocals from A Good Rogering’s Skunk Manhattan), “Rage” sounds like Frankenstein’s monster ripped the bolts out and unleashed all the emotions bottled up beneath to an unsuspecting village. In other words, Cara Van Thorn totally went beast mode on this one.

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