{"id":12880,"date":"2025-04-15T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/?p=12880"},"modified":"2026-03-08T23:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T04:04:07","slug":"ep-review-witch-hazel-casa-rosso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2025\/04\/15\/ep-review-witch-hazel-casa-rosso\/","title":{"rendered":"EP Review :: WITCH HAZEL :: CASA ROSSO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Maggie A. Clark<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clicking around on Bandcamp again, I stumbled upon a local indie-rock outfit known as Witch Hazel. Now, maybe I should have heard of them by now; I am, after all, a writer for Stylus Magazine<\/em>. But what you might not know about me is that I am a lousy, no-good dilettante, so it takes me a while to catch on to small details like \u201cwhat bands exist in Winnipeg in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I\u2019m inclined to support any band that names itself after hemorrhoid relief ointment and I heard they were playing Winterruption this year, so I figured I\u2019d check \u2019em out. But there\u2019s a problem: their website claims that they \u201c[provide] the soundtrack to your already badass life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setting aside how annoying it is to describe yourself that way, I must object to the insinuation that I am \u201calready\u201d badass. I don\u2019t know how to skateboard! I don\u2019t do any of the \u201ccool\u201d drugs! I don\u2019t orchestrate bank heists or hold up trains! I\u2019m looking at my bookshelf right now, and you wanna know what\u2019s on it? The 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>. I am a monumental dork and, if this music is intended solely for badasses, I\u2019m afraid you\u2019ll have to count me out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witch Hazel\u2019s sophomore EP, Casa Rosso<\/em> (released January 4, 2025), opens with a rumbling, bassy crescendo presumably meant to evoke the THX theme. Some may say that trick\u2019s played out by now, but I wouldn\u2019t! I still dig that sort of thing. (If anything, there should be more<\/em> THX-style motifs in the world!) No, my issue is more with the overly polished production. This has been compressed within an inch of its life. It\u2019s like someone sanded this thing into a perfectly smooth orb. I get the feeling that the band would sound much more dynamic live than they do on this record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way you held me made me feel more, more alone \/ Than being stoned with all your shitty friends,\u201d sings \u2014 well, whichever one of Drew De Pape, Ben Plett, Christian Payette, or Ron Almonte is their lead vocalist (neither their website nor Bandcamp page gives any indication) \u2014 on \u201cGuaranteed,\u201d a rollicking tune with kinda-sorta math\/surf vibes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy a snide, punchy lyric as much as the next asshole, but I\u2019m not sure I understand the premise of this one. For one thing, being held feels great, almost irrespective of context; for another, my <\/em>friends are delightful! Thus, by the transitive property, their<\/em> friends must be pretty cool too. I gather that this is a critique many men have of their significant others\u2019 friends, and I just don\u2019t get it. Then again, life\u2019s full of all manner of incomprehensible occurrences, and I can\u2019t be party to all of them, so I\u2019m sure the sentiment is bound to resonate with someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the whole, I\u2019d say that the EP offers solid instrumentation (in particular, I\u2019d like to extend two thumbs up to the drumming in \u201cSweet Was Yesterday\u201d) at the cost of the aforementioned production and iffy lyricism. And that\u2019s fine. It isn\u2019t illegal for music to be just OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Maggie A. Clark Clicking around on Bandcamp again, I stumbled upon a local indie-rock outfit known as Witch Hazel. Now, maybe I should have heard of them by now; I am, after all, a writer for Stylus Magazine. But what you might not know about me is that I am a lousy, no-good dilettante, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1728,1484,1727],"class_list":["post-12880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-casa-rosso","tag-ep-review","tag-witch-hazel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12882,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880\/revisions\/12882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}