“Show Some Shame” by Caustic Casanova – a video tribute to “Time Stand Still” by Rush
Tom Tom Mag presents the premiere of the newest video from Caustic Casanova, “Show Some Shame.” The video is a tribute to “Time Stand Still” by Rush. Caustic Casanova is a Washington DC band, who define their sound as “eclectic heavy space rock.” The band is currently on an extensive US tour. Dates can be found here.
The single “Time Stand Still” by Rush actually premiered on this day, October 19th, in 1987. We’re thrilled to premiere Caustic Casanova’s tribute 28 years to the day after Rush’s single dropped. Read below and find out why the band decided to model their video after the one by Rush. Now, here is the video!!
From the band:
Rush aren’t just the most legendary progressive rock band trio of all time. They are more than Neil Peart’s insanely innovative drumming and intensely vivid lyrical storytelling. They’re more than just much of the best progressive rock songwriting, bass playing and guitar innovation ever put to tape. They 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 joykills 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 us, it seems (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.” It’s such a ridiculous intersection of earnestness (their performances, their gazes, their clothes and of course the song and lyrics) and self-effacing strangeness (everything else about the video) that I think it represents Rush well.
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 a 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, we 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 – we 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. We 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. Our 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 for Neil, Geddy and Alex, as a way of thanking them for 40 years of inspiring music.