Escape Artist began its life just before the birth of my daughter Alaska, recorded onto a laptop which was tragically stolen during a show in Montreal when we were on tour with Darwin Deez.  The music disappeared and, for a moment, I thought long and hard about not trying to find it.  

This particular tour was a disaster, filled with bank-account emptying van repairs, the theft, and what should’ve been happy news turned into existential life path-questioning:  my partner, Magali and I, had just learned we were going to be parents.  Losing the computer felt like a sad sign about the fate of our music.

Just two days later, we were back home in NYC, playing the Knitting Factory in front of a crowd full of friends and family.  It was also my 30th birthday.  Playing our music, with Magali, tadpole Alaska, my sister Talya, and my close friends Pat and Andrew, I realized that quitting was not an option.  Music had never been an idea about life for me, it’s always been a guiding principle.  With the support of Magali, I decided to pour the recent fuel onto my musical fire and keep going.  

I got back to work with a renewed conviction.  Some of the missing tunes starting returning, but most importantly new ideas flowed with an emotional weight that reminded me I was on the right path.  I got a blue-collar job doing home deliveries of medical oxygen to make sure we’d be OK and in my down time I kept my nose down on the record.  The majority of what ended up being the final album was made during the first year of Alaska’s life in our little railroad apartment in Bushwick.

My friend, the writer, Larry 'Ratso' Sloman (a long time supporter of my music and musical collaborator), gave me a copy of his Houdini biography The Secret Life of Houdini around this time.  The book was incredibly inspiring and, in it, I found the central the metaphor for the songs I was writing.  
The album features the bands original lineup but benefits greatly from the addition of avant-alto-saxophonist Chris Aiello (WFMU’s Prove It All Night), a singing saw appearance by my friend Julian Koster (The Music Tapes, Neutral Milk Hotel), beautiful choir direction by Andrew Hoepfner (Houseworld), and the haunting pedal steel of Jon “Catfish” DeLorme (Psychic Ills).  The beautiful cover image embodies everything I was trying to say with these songs and it was taken by Magali.

I think Escape Artist is the best album we have made and looking back I’m grateful for how hard it was to accomplish.  It made me stronger, made want to work harder, tested my faith, and renewed my conviction for making music in the process.  

-Vin Cacchione

Escape Artist

'In The Land Of Giants' is to be released via Lucky Number on September 2nd (UK/EU/AUS/JAP) and September 3rd (USA). Order:

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Caged Animals - In The Land Of Giants

'Too Much Dark' is the opening track on the forthcoming album 'In The Land
Of Giants', to be released September 2nd via Lucky Number.

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In The Land Of Giants

Caged Animals - Too Much Dark

Caged Animals - Stop Hurting Each Other

Caged Animals - The Sound Of Thunder

Caged Animals - U + Yr Rocketship

Caged Animals - What You're Looking For

Caged Animals - (you're a giant now)

Caged Animals - We're Playing With Fire

Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana Cover)

Revive #2

What You're Looking For (Instrumental)

Revive #1

Too Much Dark (Instrumental)

In The Land of Giants (Instrumental)

(you're a giant now) (Instrumental)

Canadian Woman

I grew up in a family that struggled with addiction. My dad, Gino, was a NYC stand-up comic who died when I was 20, after a long battle with booze.

“Radio Down” is a road trip song that imagines a version of our story where he got the help he needed and made it through. I wrote it during the endless backroad that was 2020—my first year living in rural Canada—and recorded it to tape on a Tascam 388 with the help of my friend (and writer of beautiful songs) Jon Mckiel.

It’s the first single from a new album, coming this fall on my favorite label, You’ve Changed Records.

Radio Down

I can feel their eyes on me.  Somewhere near the water’s edge.  Maybe you don’t believe in signs but the gators do.

Deep in Daytona with Ronny Rocket, his Acadian blood magnetized by the bayou.  The air is thick with junk-sick mosquitoes and spectral neon, buzzing with the flicker of a bad dream that no one’s waking up from.  I rub my eyes.  Rocket orders from the dollar menu.  Rocket always has the right idea.

An F-150 croaks into the lot like a frog in February.  The radio tuned to static.  The asphalt sweats, rats run for cover.   I stared one second too long when the cabin burst open.  Boot heels punishing the black top.  Rocket’s on the hood making sense of all this mess.   The old man approaches.  Pistol stuck to dank blue jeans, faintly keeping time against his beer belly and heroic belt, a metronome beating out the rhythm of these dark times.  McDonald’s is America’s great piazza.  It keeps the peace, even if no one’s on their best behavior.   It’s a place to be. 

The old man leans in, his tank full of Old Grandad: “Listen boy, if you want to wake up greater…” He pauses, pulls on a Red, then we finally lock eyes, “go on and lick the alligator.”  

The wind makes everything hotter, heavy with salt and deep-fried promise.  The kind of promise you know you won’t keep.  Poor Rocket.  That burger was never gonna be enough.  

“Love’s a superpower,”  I say, as Marlboro embers flare.  The Red gets inhaled, flicked to the ground.  The old man is severe, absolute like a cul-de-sac:  “Love, here, gets hungry every hour.”  His boot crushes the butt and the door creaks open.  I nod my head and before I know it another burger is getting super-sized.  Another belly is getting tickled in the USA. 

McDonald’s is America’s great illusion.  Everyone gets fed.  No one really eats.  Except the gators.  

Please enjoy “Alligator” by Caged Animals.  Co-produced by Jon Mckiel on his Tascam 388 in the Canadian bayou and featuring Steven Lambke on melodion.

Alligator

Make Strange Friends

Teflon Heart

Caged Animals is the musical moniker for Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter Vincent Cacchione and his family band.  With a long history in the borough’s DIY music scene, Cacchione emerged from his role fronting Soft Black (whose members included DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith) to form Caged Animals, alongside his sister Talya, partner Magali Charron, and childhood friend Patrick Curry.

“Wildflowers” is the first track to be shared from the band’s new album.  Built around a propulsive groove and nocturnal atmosphere, “Wildflowers” trades in the kind of noir-tinged, art-pop The New Yorker once described as a “hip-hop influenced Velvet Underground.”  

Enveloping his plain-spoken delivery in undulating synthesizers and paisley arpeggios, Cacchione uses extended metaphor to describe the power of new life.  From the song’s central image, a flower growing in an otherwise empty field, Cacchione begins:

“This is your proof of superpowers my favorite wildflower / scaling up the towers.”  His subject, a thing of great potential, “Born into a kingdom already conquered,” but getting stronger every day.  It’s no surprise to find this theme not only stems from something personal but has it’s roots in one of life’s biggest changes.

“I wrote Wildflowers a couple months after the birth of my daughter Alaska,” explains Cacchione.  “My mind was swimming with nature.  Becoming a parent made me understand something about the power of each individual.  How we transcend our humble beginnings and make our live’s meaningful.”

Distilling their unique musical vision into it’s most focused form, Caged Animals remain understated and curious on “Wildflowers.”  Their pop-forward melodicism is both well-worn and refreshing; remaining direct, soulful, and uniquely unguarded.  A full album is expected in early 2017, featuring guest appearances from Neutral Milk Hotel’s Julian Koster and avant-alto-saxophonist Chris Aiello.

Wildflowers

Caged Animals is the musical moniker for Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter Vincent Cacchione and his family band.  With a long history in the city’s DIY music scene, Cacchione emerged from his role fronting Soft Black (whose members included DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith) to form Caged Animals. The band features his sister Talya, partner Magali Charron, childhood friend Patrick Curry, and recent recruit Chris Aiello who adds his alto-saxophone to the groups rich arrangement.

“Night Dances” is the second track to be shared from the bands forthcoming LP. It follows on the success of “Wildflowers,” which quickly became a Top 10 Viral Track on Spotify, peaking at #7 in the US and #8 Globally. It was recently used in an episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk Radio.

“Night Dances” picks up where “Wildflowers” left off but delivers even more depth and melody. Built around a spatial groove and nocturnal atmosphere, “Night Dances” trades in the kind of noir-tinged-pop The Guardian described as “the perfect soundtrack if they remade Blue Velvet.”

Most pertinently, “Night Dances” sees longtime harmony vocalist, Magali Charron, step into the spotlight as lead singer. Her vocal is delicate and rich, evoking the hushed immediacy of Julee Cruise or the late Trish Keenan. Surrounding Magali’s airy delivery with undulating synthesizers, pulsing Stratocasters, and echo-laden saxophone, Cacchione’s words evoke the spirituality of seeking:

“Your bones are broken / Your dreams are all unspoken / A strange devotion put you back in motion,” pines Charron, affirming that hope is anything but lost, it’s just not where we’ve been looking.

As the sun sets, our characters pilgrimage leads them to one frozen moment, where life’s struggles recede into the movements of love and music.

“I wrote Night Dances for Magali to sing,” explains Cacchione, “this is a romantic song and probably the closest I can come to explaining what the mystery of going through life together feels like for me. I feel so lucky to have Magali’s beautiful voice bring these words to life.”

Distilling their unique musical vision into it’s most focused form, Caged Animals remain understated and curious on “Night Dances.” Their pop-forward melodicism is both well-worn and refreshing; remaining direct, soulful, and uniquely unguarded. A full album is expected in early 2017.

Night Dances

These Dark Times is a song I wrote after the police murder of Philando Castile. 

Philando’s death hit me hard.  It drove home, in a very personal way, what it means to live in America with white privilege.  Here was a guy my age, gunned down in front of his partner and child, during what should’ve been a normal traffic stop.  A working-class American who was playing by the rules, serving his community, and bleeding out on cellphone screens across the world.  

Witnessing the viral Facebook video of his bloody final breaths, I couldn’t help but notice the disparity between his reality and mine.  Under no circumstance could I picture an outcome like this if I were the one being pulled over.  Philando’s crime:  an alleged cracked tail-light.  Philando’s fate:  an unholy death in front of the whole world.  To make this even starker, I spent the majority of 2015/2016 driving around NYC with my wife and daughter in a car with a broken tail-light.  I was never once pulled over.  

In the days following Mr. Castile’s death I was moved and inspired by the outpouring of support from the community he had served.  I began writing.

What I came up with is a meditation on what it means to desire something more for yourself, to push past your prescribed boundaries, and remain hopeful in the face of overwhelming obstacles.  I channeled Philando for the lyric “I want to make it out alive from my hometown.”    

In some ways I thought this song didn't deserve to be heard.  Maybe my voice wasn’t the right one to give these emotions expression.  I sat on it for a few months and searched my heart.  After the result’s of our presidential election I even thought about quitting music all together.  “In times as disturbing as these,” I thought, “what good am I offering the world with music?”  

Thankfully a turning point came in my way of thinking.  Instead of defeatism I became filled with a sense of urgency.  This new motivation has given me the inspiration to carry on and a renewed confidence in creating music.  

Attending The Women’s March with my wife and two-year old daughter reinforced this new outlook.  I began to believe more and more that we must remain engaged with a political struggle while also channeling our hearts and minds toward a cultural one.  I got straight to work recording my new song.

Throughout history, artists have been tasked with the responsibility of holding a mirror to society but they have also been given the privilege to shape it.  We each need to use this opportunity now, more than ever, to engage emotionally with other people.  To change hearts while we change minds.  In that spirit, and in my small way, I hope to contribute to this turning of the tides.  

Here is a song called These Dark Times.  It is delivered with hope that we will transcend this moment and it is dedicated to the memory of Philando Castile, his family members, and the millions of Americans shouting “Not My President!” 

Thanks to my partner Magali Charron for providing the excellent photograph from the NYC Women’s March that graces the single’s front cover.

These Dark Times

Springsteen's "State Trooper" recorded in honor of the birth of Anthony "Bubba" Raymond and Bruce Springsteen on 9/23/2017.  Photo by David Michael Kennedy

State Trooper

Making Magic

Get It Through My Heart

Dream World

My Friend Dave

Gravity Waves

The Coldest Place On Earth

'Cindy+Me' is the first single from the forthcoming sophomore album by Caged Animals. Single to be released June 17th. 

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Cindy+Me

Caged Animals - Cindy + Me

Remix by Billy, free download

'Cindy+Me' is the first single from the forthcoming sophomore album by Caged Animals. Single to be released June 17th.

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Caged Animals - Cindy + Me (Billy Mix Dub)

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General Enquiries: vincentcacchione@yahoo.com

Caged Animals

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