Circus of Dead Squirrels

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Circus of Dead Squirrels
Origin	Hartford, Connecticut
Genres	Industrial Metal, Ska-Metal (early), Punk (early)
Years active	2001-2017
Labels	ForaNatioN
Associated acts	Plutus Hubris, Ventana, Out Out, Toilet Duck, The Baby Jesus Abortion, Strained Existence, Dead Duck Flush, Squirrelbait
Past members	Matt Foran Daniel Raphael Matt Nodand Rocky Sobon Samuel Capozziello John Beeler Dennis Boehm Craig Douglas Neal Damato

Circus of Dead Squirrels (sometimes stylized as CiRcUs oF DEaD SQUiRrELs, often abbreviated as CODS) is an american industrial metal band from Hartford, Connecticut.

The band's debut record, Indoor Recess, was released in 2004, followed by Outdoor Recess (2005), The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World (2007), TPCM2: Judgement Day Remixing The Massacre (2008), Operation Satan (2010) and TPCM2: Judgment Day (2014).

History

Early Years and Formation (2001-2004)

The band was formed in 2001 by Matt Foran, Daniel Raphael and John Beeler, who worked together previously in their late 1990's Ska Metal band, Toilet Duck while in high school. After most of its members departed after graduating, they moved to using more programming and keyboards to supplement the loss of members...

They initially stuck with the name Toilet Duck and released two demos under this name. They later experimented with names such as Dead Duck Flush, The Baby Jesus Abortion, and finally Squirrelbait.

They started trying to find more members for their band but struggled to find anyone, in 2003 they decided to create a debut album independently under the label ForanNatioN, initially deciding to not have a live act.

Their name Squirrelbait was soon changed to the final name for the band, Circus of Dead Squirrels, after finding out that the name was already used by a band in the 1980's.

Indoor Recess and Outdoor Recess (2004-2006)

In January of 2004 they released their debut album Indoor Recess, the album tackled themes of american popular culture, christianity, commercialism, and society as a whole. After receiving a warm positive reception to the album, The group decided they should put together a live act, however they continued to struggle to find a suitable lineup.

Shortly after the release of Indoor Recess, during an interview when asked what was going to be next, Circus of Dead Squirrels stated that they planned on releasing two full-length albums in early 2005, The first record was stated to be written by one member, Daniel Raphael, before Indoor Recess was in pre-production and was described as a calmer more industrial influenced sound. The second album was described as a mixture of cover songs, remixes and six new tracks, two being named "Chainsaw in my penis" and "Utopia Burning". The later album would later become the remix album, Outdoor Recess, which did not include any of the cover songs or new tracks. Utopia Burning would later be featured on their sophomore record, The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World in 2007.

In September of 2005 they released an album titled Outdoor Recess which contained tracks from Indoor Recess remixed by various artists and members of the band, including Out Out, Intricate Unit, Tragedie Ann, Collapse into Reason, Vein Cage, J.S.Greenier, Of Mice & Men, The Grape Kool-Aid Experience, and HermeneutecH.

After the release of Outdoor Recess they found a new lineup of the band and begun recording their next album The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World.

The Pop Culture Massacre, TPCM2, and Disbandment (2007-2008)

On April 17th, 2007, their sophomore effort The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World was released. The album focused on socio-political topics and american popular culture and contains Public Service Announcements between tracks. To support the album, the band released an animated music video for the song "Elmo's Last Laugh" a few months later, the music video was directed by Travis Falligant, which was the same artist that did the artwork for the album.

In an interview right before The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World was released, it was hinted that Daniel Raphael was already working on a new album titled "Operation Satan" and stated it would be released later in the year

On August 19th 2008, Circus of Dead Squirrels released a reissue of Indoor Recess, this new version contained selected tracks from their 2005 remix album, Outdoor Recess, as well as new remixes.

They followed up with another remix album, TPCM2: Judgement Day Remixing The Massacre which much like the previous remix album contained tracks from The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World remixed by various artists and members of the band. acts such as Out Out, Vein Cage, returned to remix tracks, with other acts joining such as, Cyanotic, As Summer Dies, 16 Volt, Mushroomhead, Ventana, Infocollapse, and Obszön Geschöpf.

In October of 2008, the band had a physical release of TPCM2: Judgement Day through Misfortune Records, which production was stopped soon after CODS and the record label had a falling out after Misfortune Records failed to send the band any of the merch and was selling online themselves and keeping any profit made. The band disbanded soon after on October 27, 2008.

Reunion and Operation Satan (2009-2011)

The band reunited on January 27, 2009 and begun work on a new album titled "Operation Satan". Not much was heard from the record until June of the following year when the band launched a Kickstarter to help raise $3000 to fund the album. The band was able to successfully raise $3,659, surpassing their asking amount.

In the following months the band released a singles from Operation Satan titled "Saturday Mourning", "Chickenshit" and "Bible Thumpers" and announced that the next album would contain 16 songs, 6 of them being short instrumentals. In the beginning of October, Pre-Orders begun with the promise of a Halloween release date, this release date was pushed back until December due to technical issues out of the bands control. The band decided to give out the album to Kickstarter paterons of $100 or more early to make their wait a little easier.

On November 19th, The band discovered that some of their Kickstarter patrons who got the album early decided to share the albums online for free and the band posted an tirade on their official Facebook page on illegally downloading music. The band decided to then release the digital version of the album early for all Kickstarter backers and subsequently released the digital version of the album ahead of the physical release date, giving free downloads to those who bought the physical copy.

The physical version of Operation Satan was released as a Digipak CD on December 9th, 2010. For the following year, $2 off of every sale of Operation Satan bought directly from the band went to various Associations protecting animals such as The Humane Farming Association, PETA, In Defense of Animals, and various Humane Society centers. The albums themes of animal cruelty came about after the band was watching a Documentary called Brother's Keeper and a scene of a pig being wrestled to the ground and stabbed angered them, and led to them conducting research on what really happens to animals behind the scenes. The albums purpose was to educate others on animal cruelty.

To support the album the band released music videos for three songs off of the album, those being "What We Deserve", "Bible Thumpers", and "Laboratory Lust". The three videos all contained footage of real life violence against either animals or people. What We Deserve showed animals seriously harming or killing people, Bible Thumpers showed footage of people in the Factory Farm Industry murdering pigs, and linking the animals suffering with footage of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, and Laboratory Lust showed animals like Rabbits being tested on by the Cosmetics Industry. Two of the music videos, What We Deserve and Bible Thumpers were subsequently removed off of Youtube for violating terms of service. Later in early 2012, the band was able to get their music video "What We Deserve" back on Youtube.

The Band Also supported the album with a small midwest tour with Ventana titled The Operation Humanity Tour where the proceeds of every ticket sale was donated to Farm Sanctuary and the ASPCA, for which they raised over $1000 dollars.

The following winter In the month of January 2012, Circus of Dead Squirrels participated in the "Punch Your Cock In" US tour with the likes of Psychostick, Ventana, and As Summer Dies.

TPCM2 Reimagining and Upcoming New Album (2012-2017)

During the summer months of 2012, CODS held various contests to keep hype alive for their latest album and the reimagining of their short lived record in 2008, these included a lip-syncing contest and a remix contest of their song "Elmo's Last Laugh", in which the winners would either be given free merch or had their song featured on the remix album. The band also ran polls for what cover song they would like to see on TPCM2: Judgment Day, and "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred won.

To support the new record, on December 22nd, 2012, the band released a christmas themed single titled "Happy Birthday Jesus".

After about two more years of no major updates, in February of 2014, another Kickstarter was launched to put their next release, a reimagining of TPCM2: Judgement Day on CD, it raised $1898 in the seven days it ran. This was also followed by a release date soon after the Kickstarter was over, however issues with mastering the record pushed the release date a few months into the following May.

On May 1st, 2014, the reimagining of their 2008 effort, TPCM2: Judgment Day, was released, this version included six new songs including the previously released single "Happy Birthday Jesus", and two new remixes, the first by Audioflesh, and the second being the winning remix from the fan contest, however the chosen cover song was absent.

On August 1st the band unofficially released the cover of "I'm Too Sexy" that did not make it on TPCM2: Judgment Day. Later that month the band announced that only two more albums were planned before CODS was done for good, but that would not be for years to come.

That September, the band released a small video showcasing that live drums were being recorded for the next album, which was new for the band.

On April 20th, 2015, an announcement was made that a new live band was being put together than consisted of new members Zach Szarmach, and Braden Booher with returning members Matt Nodland, Sam "AudioFlesh" Capozziello, and Matt Foran. They subsequently played two shows in February the following year with Ventana and Cyanotic.

Disbandment and the New Project: Plutus Hubris (2017-2021)

The band announced via their official Facebook page on January 2nd, 2017, that CODS had officially ended and that the 13 completed tracks for their new album were being scrapped

On August 11th, 2018, Matt Foran of the late Circus of Dead Squirrels, made an announcement that he will be working with Nick Panneton and Rocky Sobawn on a new project called Plutus Hubris and Mark Alan Miller of Out Out would be returning to engineer the music. It was also mentioned that the relationship between him and Daniel Raphael have been patched up but the last CODS album was to remain unreleased, he encouraged Daniel to release the tracks in some form or another. A year later an announcement on the official Facebook page revealed the new band, Plutus Hubris and displayed new artwork.

Reunion (2021- )

On April 6th 2021 it was announced the band were back together consisting of a line up of Matt Foran, Craig Douglas, John Beeler, Matt Nodland, guitarist Derek Sendrak and drummer Dan Fox and were working on new material slated to be released in the summer of 2021

Styles/Influences

Circus of Dead Squirrels sound combines elements of Industrial, Industrial Metal, Heavy Metal, Hardcore, Speedcore, Alternative Metal, Synth-pop, Punk rock, and uses elements of Circus Music. They have been categorized as Industrial, Industrial Metal, Heavy Metal, and Death Metal.

Matt Foran of Circus of Dead Squirrels stated Dimmu Borgir, KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and GWAR, Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and Crash Test Dummies as musical influences.

Band Members

Former Members

• Matt Foran – Vocals (2001–2008, 2009–2017)
• Daniel Raphael – Guitar, Keyboard, Bass, and Drum Programming (2001–2017)
• John Beeler – Bass, Guitar (2001–2004) Bass (2005–2007)
• Matt Nodand – Bass (2004–2005, 2007–2008, 2009–2016)
• Zach Szarmach – Drums (2015–2016)
• Braden Booher – Guitar (2015–2016)
• John Sustar – Guitar (2010–2016)
• Rocky Sobon – Guitar (2009–2016)
• Craig Douglas – Drums (2005–2008, 2009–2010)
• Dennis Boehm – Synths (2005–2007)
• Derek Sendrak – Guitar (2004–2005)
• Jason Kelly – Guitar (2004–2005)
• Rocky Ramboa - Guitar (2012–2016)

Former Live Show Members

• Samuel Capozziello – Keyboard (2012–2016)
• Andrew Pond – Guitar (2011–2016)
• Rick Thomas – Synths (2011–2014)
• Scott Beck – Synths (2011–2014)
• Daniel Fox – Drums (2011–2014)
• Vince Zingale Guitar (2011–2014)
• Neil Damato – Guitar (2006–2008)
• Nick Tamiso – Drums (2006–2008)

Discography

Demos

• Demo #1 (As Toilet Duck)
• Demo #2 (As Toilet Duck)

Studio Albums

• Indoor Recess (2004)
• The Pop Culture Massacre And The End Of The World (2007)
• Operation Satan (2010)

Remix Albums

• Outdoor Recess (2005)
• TPCM2: Judgement Day Remixing The Massacre (2008)

Compilations

• TPCM2: Judgment Day (2014)

Music Videos

• Elmo's Last Laugh
• What We Deserve
• Laboratory Lust
• Bible Thumpers

External Links

Circus of Dead Squirrels Official Website

Circus of Dead Squirrels (Industrial Metal Band)

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