Artist Spotlight ~ CARSEX

Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our readers to some deserving up and coming artists/bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass, and we hope you do too! Let’s shine the spotlight on Long Beach, CA punkers CARSEX!

Long Beach, CA Punk band CARSEX sound is what the name implies: Sleazy, primitive, uncomfortable & just as good as your friends told you it’d be.

Forged by the survivors of Long Beach music scene bands Damned Age, Black Velvet Brigade, and Red River Massacre, these five music veterans have slugged it out in the clubs of Orange County, California for more than 10 years. While performing shows in these various groups on the circuit they became friends over time. As the bands they were in either dissolved or changed direction – they decided to form under a new banner with shared musical tastes & goals, and CARSEX formed in 2018.

With influences spanning from the early Los Angeles punk sound such as the Circle Jerks, Black Flag & the Germs, to the Doors and Danzig, plus more modern monsters like Queens of the Stone Age, Murder City Devils & Fu Manchu – they play hard and loud with no hint of an apology. It’s not easy to put a definite tag on the sound or pin-point exactly what’s going on… It’s like that strange feeling you get when you’re in the back seat in the throes of passion (or down front in the pit). You need to be in the moment to interpret it for yourself.

CARSEX has previously released 2 EPs: 2019’s CarSex and 2020’s 2020 EP, which featured the singles “Your Generation” and “Lovesick”. The band is stepping up their game in 2024, and is following up the success of their first single & video “Crooked Canvas” with blistering new track “Sitting Ducks”. The band recorded the song at Maple Sound Studios in Santa Ana, CA with producer Steve Evetts (Sepultura, Alesana, Poison the Well, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Butcher Babies) and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, New Windsor, NY. They have just released new EP “Human Interest”.

CARSEX is very much a live band, and shows are currently being booked to support their new music releases. They’ve opened for Stillwell (Fieldy from Korn’s Band), The Obsessed, Mondo Generator, Suicide Silence, Unsane, Dead Poet’s Society, Narcoleptic Youth, and O’Zorn!, among others. The power of their pure degradation of the stage combined with sexually charged, exorcism-esque energy during their performance sets a ritual scene that one must be a part of to fully understand. The heart pounding drums & bass that could blow the clothes off anything with legs, screaming guitars with solos that go both ways and howling vocals that turn speaking in tongues into English. This is CARSEX.

NEXT LIVE SHOW: Saturday, Sept. 6th – Supply & Demand – Long Beach CA

We sat down with CARSEX bassist Jeremy Schott for a short, but fun Q&A!

Every superhero or villain has an origin and a band is no different minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What is the origin of CARSEX? What got into music?

CARSEX was assembled from the best parts of now defunct bands. The most talented players of Damned Age, Drunkard’s Remorse and Black Velvet Brigade combined forces (much like Voltron) to form CARSEX.

Band names can have a meaning or it can be a name pulled out of a hat. What’s the story behind CARSEX?

There was a morning radio show in Southern California talking about car sex one day and Nigel, our singer, thought it would be a good band name. It took some time to convince the two Orange County boys to join Nigel and I but they came around eventually. It came to us out of the ether and we grabbed it.

What are you currently working on?

We’re currently promoting our new EP, Human Interest ( https://linktr.ee/carsex). We’re playing shows to support it and we’ll be playing live through the fall. We’ve also started writing more new music. We hope to release another music video later this year and get back in the studio at the end of the year or early next year.

What was your favorite cartoon growing up?

My favorite cartoons were probably He-Man and Scooby Doo – I grew up watching the classic Saturday Morning Cartoons. I’ve seen every episode of the Jetsons too.

Are you a good cook? What’s your best dish to prepare?

I’m a damn good cook. I own a horror/ heavy metal themed pizza place called The 4th Horseman in Long Beach, CA. I make a mean filet mignon, Sun Dried Tomato Chicken, and Broiled Salmon with capers. You name it and I’ll cook it!