Cuckoo Chaos to play farewell show at Soda Bar, but will return with reshaped identity

Por Logan Broyles | Reportero SDUN

Longtime fans will get one last chance to say goodbye to Cuckoo Chaos when they play their final show at Soda Bar in Normal Heights on Dec. 28.

Yet this isn’t the end, but rather the beginning of a new journey for the band’s members, who first got together back in 2006 and have been a staple of the local music scene for years.

“We felt like the direction that we had gone in was so far from where we had started that it had basically turned into a new project, so we just decided to make it official and start a new group under a new name,” explained lead singer and guitarist Jackson Milgaten.

“We’ll be launching a new project early next year and we’re really excited about it. We spent this whole past year, all of 2013, making this record that will come out under this new project.”

For years the group felt it had a mixed identity. They were putting out records that fit a certain style expected of the name Cuckoo Chaos; meanwhile, their live shows had evolved into something entirely different.

The group essentially stopped playing songs from their recorded albums during performances years ago, opting instead to play original songs that they had been putting together on the side that better fit the new direction they were going in as musicians.

“It had all started to feel totally separate, none of the music that we had recorded and released as Cuckoo Chaos was even getting played live at our shows,” Milgaten noted. “It just seemed like there was no connection between what we were doing now and what we were doing when we were Cuckoo Chaos.”

The five-piece band is made up of founding members Milgaten and Jeremy Scott on guitar and vocals, along with Dave Mead on drums, Scott Wheeler on guitar and vocals, and Garrett Prange on bass.

Without going into too much detail about the new direction of the group or what the name will be, Milgaten said they will push toward a darker and edgier style that better reflects where the band’s members are today as musicians.

“We’ve moved past what we were doing, yet we found [ourselves] bound by it because the public and the media had an idea of what kind of music they were expecting us to make and we just weren’t making that music anymore,” Milgaten said.

The new record has been under construction for the last two years, with everything already recorded and the album in the editing stage. It is expected to come out next spring as the group launches their new project.

“We wrote it over the course of the last two and a half years and we started recording in January and finished it this past August,” Milgaten said. “It’s different than what we’ve done in the past; it’s considerably darker.

“Initially people were sort of confused by the change and thought we were breaking up, but it seems pretty clear at this point that we’re all going to continue making music together so people have come around to it more.”

It seems fitting that Cuckoo Chaos ends its run at Soda Bar, where they have played so many shows over the years.

“Of any venue in San Diego, the Soda Bar has felt like a home for this project as far as live venues go, we’ve played some of my favorite shows there as Cuckoo Chaos,” Milgaten reminisced. “I’ve always liked that the stage is on the ground, there barely even is a stage so everything feels really close. The bar and the stage and the crowd are all smooshed together so it almost feels like a house party kind of vibe at a venue.

“The last show is going to be a great time, we’re gonna play a couple Cuckoo songs that we haven’t played in awhile and then mainly we’re going to play new material that is going to come out with the new project.”

Cuckoo Chaos will be joined for their final performance at Soda Bar Dec. 28 by opening local act Most-Hi and North County natives Snuffaluffagus, who are coming to San Diego by way of Brooklyn.

Tickets and information can be found at sodabarmusic.com