Vincent Cacchione is an nerdy looking Brooklynite with Italian roots whose late father was a stand up comedian.
There weren't too many laughs on The Witching Hour by Soft Black, the four piece band he also fronts. Feeling guilty about bringing more bleakness into a world in dire need of light, he sat down and wrote Too Much Dark in which he describes "searching for some beauty beneath all this doom".
Drawing inspiration from Jeff ' Neutral Milk Hotel' Mangum, his songs "about family, faith and hope" are like a cross between Elephant 6 psychedelic pop and a lo-fi version of Flaming Lips.
The first single, Cindy+Me, is a quirky love song which Cacchione calls his "Bonnie & Clyde for the digital generation" and in Stop Hurting Each Other he advocates trusting intuition and taking the trouble to be nice. The Mute +The Mindreader is all about sharing your joy with someone who loves you.
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Caged Animals songs make a virtue of being direct and uncomplicated. Lyrically they are corny but not without wit - I particularly like the line "I wrote my thesis, I spoke with Jesus" from Tiny Sounds.
In our cynical age luvvy duvvy synth pop of this nature sounds either dated or just plain cheesy. Cacchione is well aware of this but the bubblegum of his ' loving the alien' song U + Yr Rocketship and the voiceover closing tune What You're Looking For show that is not afraid to be silly, sentimental and optimistic.
For him, light is the new dark.
Caged Animals' website
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