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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Subversive band shakes things up

With a name like Caesar Pink & the Imperial Orgy, you know that this band is not your run of the mill rock band. This is a band that will call the listener to sit up and take note of what is going on with the world around them, using satirical lyrics that range from attacking the commercialization of American society and world religions for claiming that they kill in the name of god.

The band began when the members met in the Pennsylvania State University Film Department.

“All six of the seven original members were all film students,” Caesar Pink, founding member and guitarist, said. “We put together this multimedia show and that was basically it. We played in our home town for six months and caused quite a stir.”

According to the bands official website, the controversy that arose due to their subversive lyrics caused gigs to be canceled, threats to be sent, college campuses to burn their gig posters and radio stations to refuse to play their songs.

After leaving Pennsylvania, the band moved up to New York City. Though several of the original members have left the band, they were since replaced with new members. The current band members are: Caesar Pink (guitar), Angelica Aspiras (vocals), Erin Boyd (vocals), Tony Coque (guitar), Isabella (piano), Kighkey Deygogh (bass) and Frank Picarazzi (drums).

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The second half of the band’s name comes from a book that Pink was reading at the time the band was formed.

“It comes from a book I was reading by Henry Miller,” Pink said. “He (Miller) was listing some books he had read and mentioned The Imperial Orgy, and I put it together with Caesar Pink, which is a name I write under. At first I thought it was too outrageous . . . After I thought about it was perfect because of the scope of our music is very eclectic as far as musical styles and live performances, with a mix of anything goes.”

The band put out their album, All God’s Children, in 2006. For Pink, who wrote most of the songs, the purpose of the album is to challenge the listener to look beyond the humor and get the message behind it.

“There’s a lot of humor in the album,” Pink said. “Certainly the lyrics come from wanting to say something . . . I always feel a little bit of nausea with what I see going on in the main stream media and with what culture has to offer.”

For inspiration, Pink turns to real life experience.

“I find myself very lucky to have it come smoothly to me,” Pink said. “For instance, ‘All God’s Children,’ at the time was right after 9/11, and I was working right at Ground Zero there . . . The chorus just kind of came out. A lot of what I write comes from what I feel is going on.”

For more information about Caeser Pink & The Imperial Orgy, visit www.theimperialorgy.com for links to their family of websites.

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