It's Casual

IT'S CASUAL: THE NEW LOS ANGELES
It’s hard to digest the minutiae of society while traveling the freeways of Los Angeles in the comfort of a car at sixty miles per hour. Typically lined on both sides by cinder block walls, the L.A. freeways are mere pipelines of travel, often scurrying residents through neighborhoods of both low and high-income within mere minutes, barely offering a scant glimpse of what happens at the ends of those off-ramps.

But when It’s Casual vocalist/guitarist Edward Solis leaves his eastern Los Angeles-based residence to make his daily hour-long commute to Hollywood, he’s able to form an entirely new perspective. Solis, a rare, unlicensed Angelino, relies solely on public transportation to make his way around. The bus routes and train line on which he rides meander on surface streets, cutting across bothdecorative and distressed neighborhoods.

Armed with nothing more than a hard, plastic seat perched aside an etched window and his keen observations, Solis has been able to capture his interpretation of Los Angeles life via It’s Casual’s third album, The New Los Angeles.

It’s Casual, also featuring drummer W.C.E., has been performing since the late ‘90s throughout Southern California. The summer of 2002 found the pair outside the state’s borders, as part of the Vans Warped Tour, promoting its debut, Buicregl. In 2004, It’s Casual took a couple days off (yes, literally a couple) to record its second album, Stop Listening To Bad Music. The album found Solis upping the ante on his straightforward delivery of life in the large city.

After returning home from a summer tour in 2006, It’s Casual entered the studio with producer Sergio J. Chavez for a third album session. The resulting ten-song collection, The New Los Angeles, finds the band more focused than ever, with its hard-hitting, riff-packed hardcore punk/metal delivery that rubs shoulders with the best of Black Flag, Fu Manchu, Motorhead and Bl’ast.

The song titles themselves are enough to mold a basic expectation. The album launches with the title track, which reveals a lack of communication amongst residents. Child negligence concerns are addressed via “Too Many Kids,” while “The Red Line” flags the horrors of freeway traffic when suitable alternatives already exist. “L.A.P.D.” speaks of law enforcement’s scramble (and sometimes failure) to protect a city bursting at its seams and “Navigator” points the finger at those who parade the streets with just a façade of wealth.

X released Los Angeles in 1977 and Ry Cooder’s Chavez Ravine might’ve addressed the City of Angels to some extent. But never before has the nation’s largest city been so thoroughly documented as on It’s Casual’s latest, The New Los Angeles. It’s the new Los Angeles!

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