O n opposite sides of a stage, two fierce figures — one clad in industrial garb, the other in richly colored stylish attire, faces painted with equally lush palettes — rev up. Each taps their feet the way a bull prepares to charge, creating a kinetic field around this rock ‘n’ roll cage match. Behind them, drums pound furi- ously and guitars slip slick riffs into the atmosphere, combining to bring the tension to a boiling point. Amid their respective hole-boring stares, these two towers of electricity move toward one another, their collective energy a magnet, giving their mission clarity. They clash and morph into one force of nature, wielding their power lyri- cally to pummel you with the opening verse of a song. “You’re an idiot/ You embody every bit of it/Even set a new precedent/Empirical. Concrete evidence/Minimal due dili- gence/We’ve concluded what is obvious/ You’re a bunghole.” The power-tower double-teaming you is Maynard James Keenan and Carina Round of Puscifer. The setting is the video for the track “Self Evident,” from their new record, “Normal Isn’t,” which drops on Feb. 6, ahead of a U.S. and Canadian tour from March through May. The trio will play the Arizona Financial Theater in downtown Phoenix on March 21. Separately, each is a wildly talented vocalist. Together? A magical sonic align- ment, whether they’re trading off on a round of lyrics or syncing up. In this case, no one raises the word “bunghole” back to the top of the zeitgeist quite like this since Mike Judge introduced us to Beavis and Butthead. These characters, serving up songs and videos and additional ephemera, spring from a trio — Keenan, Round and Mat Mitchell, the guitarist and producer — who simply love to play. They’ve been doing so for 23 years now, releasing their first record, “‘V’ is for Vagina” in 2007. Together, they’ve built a lore by developing the personalities they discover within as their musical journey unfolds. Along the way, we’ve met Billy D and his wife Hildy Berger, Special Agent Dick Merkin and Major Douche. “Carina would say that the characters come together because I was dropped on my head as a kid,” Keenan says with a mischievous miniature grin. “And with Maynard telling us, ‘Hear me out,’” Round adds. “Really, all the music comes first, so it comes from rhythms and melodies to start, and we build on those over time,” Keenan says. “As we work, we’re trying to figure out, you know, where this is going.” He likes to call their dynamic “serious play.” It has always been this way, he says. “The earliest stuff, before Mat was involved, was absolutely from the hip.” Keenan cites a lifelong love of comedy as a thread of influence: digging Monty Python, moving to Los Angeles, and wading into the sketch comedy scene. While that’s present in music, he wanted to reshape it with an edge. “That was all fun, but I’m rooted in storytelling and music,” Keenan says. “So I had to bring in the more serious element of something foundational, and that’s where Mat comes in. He really helped lay the groundwork for our direction. And we’ve created a playful, safe space where you just explore and go.” It’s not always easy for bands to work together as themselves, let alone to craft personas that also have to interact. Yet these three evince a palpable sense of comfort. “It’s trust,” Round says. “We work sepa- rately, so there’s an element of trust in what each other does individually, and then it gets thrown back, ping-ponged back and we work off of each other in that way. We have a symbiotic way of communicating, spoken or unspoken. Not everything hits right away; you just have to trust, let it sink in, let it morph into what it’s gonna be.” Armed with four studio releases and that well-established personal bond, the band is about to thrust “Normal Isn’t” on the world. While that aforementioned track, “Self Evident,” doesn’t address one person in particular, it certainly takes narcissistic agitators to task, pulling no punches. And yes, the current state of the country is an unavoidable boulder that Keenan and crew feel no need to ignore. “I’m 61. I’ve seen some things,” Keenan says, addressing the record’s title. “I’ve seen us (the country) go through changes. Ups, downs, backs and forths, and I’ve never seen this. This is insane. Over the last decade or so, maybe some are starting to get used to the weirdness, but please don’t get used to this. This is not normal. This is not working.” He admits, like most of us, that he doesn’t have any solutions, but he knows we have to “build something going forward that’s not this.” We talk about counteracting the weight of the world with creativity, how that can save one’s own sanity to a degree, and, hopefully, offer some solace beyond oneself. Round says for her and most artists, it’s inherent. “I would say, ask any creative person about that, and they’ll tell you the reason they started was to fix whatever problems or process whatever difficulties they are having as a human being. That’s why we’re creative, because we want to process what- ever it is we’re experiencing. I’d say what- ever is happening in the world, outside or within, if you’re a creative person, you’re always going to be driven to create.” What they’ve created with this new record is not a flat surface to dance upon but rather a cave to lurk in and explore, Puscifer mixes fun and trust to create multimedia wonderlands. BY AMY YOUNG (All photography by Jim Louvau)
