Cave Clove

Cave Clove is a 4-piece rock band based in Oakland, CA. The band’s sound is timeless and all their own as they seamlessly combine their shared love of 70’s and 90’s singer-songwriters with progressive rock. They are known for their robust melodies, hooks, arrangements and for their reliably soulful performances. Fronted by songwriter/vocalist Katie Colver, the past 6 years have been a collaboration between Colver, lead guitarist Brent Curriden, and bassist Alisa Saario. They were joined by drummer Harrison Murphy for their 2019 tour dates and for the making of their upcoming full-length album The Muscle and the Meaning (Spring 2022), which is undoubtedly the band’s most realized and compelling batch of songs to date.   
 
In many ways, The Muscle and the Meaning, the band’s follow up to 2019’s Dollars to Tokens EP, is like the flip-side of the same coin. Described by Glide Magazine as a collection of “psych-rock infused anthemic stunners brimming with electrifying guitars and a West Coast Americana songwriting sensibility,” Dollars to Tokens centered around the sacrifices that Colver was making to follow her dreams and her prioritization of art and adventure over health and stability. She described the EP as being about “the dance between self-sabotage and self-actualization.” The Muscle and the Meaning is about this same dance, but focuses more on the introspective process of recovery and healing. The “muscle” in this case refers to the daily grind of deciding how to be in relationship with one’s body, past, goals, and interpersonal connections. The “meaning” is found both in and after the muscling through each day while striving to live more authentically. “Great meaning can emerge from this type of work, but you have to do the dirty work first, and that’s why it’s the muscle and the meaning and not the other way around,” Colver explains.   
 
 The album’s sonic landscape and lyrics all reflect this push and pull of the recovery process, cycling between intimate, sparse, and sacred moments and deeply layered swells of passion and desperation. The live, organic instrumentation gives it a retro feel, but the themes are timeless as recovery journeys are always relevant, whether in a personal or societal context.  
 
“New Secret” is a song about holding both the despair that comes from keeping secrets as well as acceptance of oneself despite one’s regrets. “I’ll wait for my time, but I’m not standing on the side. I’ll stand inside the void” Colver affirms, referring to a sense of trust that healing will occur in time, but acknowledging that she must continue to be present with the struggle, even though the outcome is unknown. Dire Straits-esque guitar riffs and up-close-and-personal vocals that evoke the style of Stevie Nicks and Natalie Merchant give the song a driving-yet-groovy feeling. The song leaves the listener with the sense that everything will be alright even though it may presently feel like a mess.  
 
The album spans a spectrum of moods and attitudes, like a day in the life of anyone in recovery. Colver wrote “Test of the Season” in a moment of inspiration and deep yearning to be in better integrity with her values. “Obsidian”, on the other hand, was written at a low point for Colver in which she felt resolved to live a life of self-sabotage. The Muscle and the Meaning is essentially a collection of conversations between true self and personality. “On Witches Brew,” for example, is written from the perspective of Colver’s essence giving a pep talk to her ego.   
 
“Go Big,” the surfy, playful final track of the album, conveys opposing sentiments toward the object of one’s addiction, be it a substance, a pattern, or a person. In the first verse, Colver describes the times when cravings are high but she is able to power through and abstain: “I wanted you, I stood by you, you were ready for me, but I wouldn’t have you.” The second verse, on the other hand, is about still wanting something or someone even when it is very clear that it is not good for you: “I battled you, I hated you, you mortified me, but all I wanted was you.”  
 
Although the album contains a diverse range of emotions and messages, it is highly accessible and leaves room for the listener to experience the music on their own terms. If what you need is to cry, it will make you cry and if what you need is to dance, it will make you dance. The Muscle and the Meaning is a celebration of human resilience, of caring for oneself even in the darkest of moments, and the light at the end of the tunnel after a long journey toward healing and acceptance.