Caroliner: Masked Rituals of the San Francisco Underground

This episode explores the enigmatic world of Caroliner, a group whose masked rituals and sonic extremity defined a singular presence within the San Francisco underground. Emerging in the late 1980s and 1990s, Caroliner constructed performances that blurred the boundaries between music, theater, and myth—operating as a shifting collective rather than a fixed band identity.

We trace their roots within the experimental and noise-adjacent scenes of San Francisco, where DIY culture, performance art, and avant-garde composition intersected. Their work is characterized by chaotic structures, dense instrumentation, and deliberately disorienting aesthetics—combining acoustic fragments, distortion, and surreal narrative into immersive sonic events.

Historically, Caroliner reflects a broader lineage of American experimental music, yet remains uniquely theatrical. Costumes, masks, and invented mythology transform performance into ritualized spectacle, where identity dissolves into collective expression and abstraction.

This episode analyzes how Caroliner challenges conventional listening—replacing clarity with intensity, and structure with transformation. Through history, performance practice, and aesthetic inquiry, we explore how their work redefines underground music as experiential ritual, existing at the edge of sound and imagination.

【Related Column】Carolina Liner: A masked community hidden in San Francisco's underground music scene

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