Album Notes

Los Angeles is a city built on dreams and sunshine. But if you’ve lived here long enough you realize that the only dreamers left are the ones that sleep in late or those that can’t sleep at all. LA is a city inspired by those who are extraordinary social casualties or by those who are lonely success stories. It’s a city of fleeting decadence, haunted by the ghosts of forgotten dreams and one in which successful musicians are those presumed lucky until proven tormented.

It’s also the city Circus Minor calls home. The band uses its music to taunt and resurrect the ghosts of LA’s forgotten lovers, rebels and that long forgotten belief that meaning can indeed be found in impermanence. This House is Haunted, the band’s sophomore disc, is a collection of howling compositions and gypsy-lust, rock and roll lullabies—each song on the record flowing together like chapters in a novel about the tragic love affair between condensing and expanding musical space. Think Black Sabbath sipping Absinthe in a lush bar with Black Heart Procession. It’s music that shares its secrets with promiscuous impunity and assumes listeners would rather be haunted than head banging…rather be chasing ghosts than chasing the next big thing.

“Recently I was driving through the desert listening to the new record,” says singer and bassist Daniel Denton. “And realized I was actually really proud of it. We took our time with this record and I think it’s just really sincere.”

Rounding out the Circus Minor ensemble is guitarist Sean Simmons, drummer Adam Alt and keyboardist Julie Dicterow. In 2002 the band began writing songs and flirting with the idea of starting a band based off their mutual fascinations, with free form noise and creating rock and roll that could be expressed as a musical cosmos of colors. In 2005, the band released its self-titled debut album.

After several tours up and down the west coast and consistent gigs at LA venues the Troubadour, Knitting Factory, Viper Room and Spaceland, Circus Minor found both their music and themselves. They returned to the studio in early 2006 with producer Todd Spitzer to record This House is Haunted.

This time around the band ditched the previous record’s traditional rock format and instead indulged themselves in moody, left of center song structures that infused the band’s darkly optimistic sound with hints of mischief that spice up the album. This House is Haunted is a record about craving. The music is often playful and taunting—like a cocky yet seductive wink from a stranger in passing. Much like this city it was borne from, Circus Minor’s music is about wanting and longing—not for something you’ve never had—but rather for what you once tasted before it slipped away.

-Erin Broadley

CIRCUS MINOR is accessorized by three side projects:

Street Drum Corps (feat. Adam Alt)

Never at Night (feat. Daniel Denton)

Lila (feat. Julie Dicterow)