Craw

A Forest of Stars, “A Prophet for a Pound of Flesh”

The rolled Rs are a bit much, don’t you think, A Forest of Stars guy? There’s always a line that metal bands walk, where if they go too far and seem like they’re taking themselves too seriously, they cross into Theatre Kid territory. Now, you can lean into the ridiculousness, of course, and that’s fine and good and not what I’m talking about. It’s just if you get too dramatic and don’t seem to be tongue-in-cheek at all, well, it gets extremely silly.

Latitudes, “Amnio”

I went and checked what I said about this band the last couple times they’ve come up, and I’ve described them as kind of doom, kind of post-rock each time. I stand by it! Good enough, let’s ship it!

Discordance Axis, “Oratorio in Grey”

And then we have the opposite end of metal, just pure grindcore speed and fury. It’s for the best that most of these songs are about a minute long.

Elvis Costello, “New Amsterdam”

This song is actually a demo that Costello recorded, and then included directly on the record instead of re-recording it. The result is one of the more distinctive songs on the album, a minimal arrangement that ends up letting the clarity of the melody shine through.

Girl Talk, “Still Here”

It’s always a little strange to hear one of the Girl Talk songs out of the context of the albums. It shouldn’t be, because they’re such chameleons, but the progression of songs is burned into my brain so it throws me off. In other news, I love the bit from The Band on this track.

Here’s today’s music.

Norska, “Too Many Winters”

Portland band Norska combine elements of doom metal with parts of noise rock, which means I am very much interested in their ideas and would like to subscribe to their newsletter. And it pretty much delivers on that promise, with the stretched out songs of doom and guitar patterns of noise rock. The various side projects of Yob (their bassist Aaron Rieseberg is in Norska, their singer is in VHOL for example) continue to explore what metal can do when cross-polinated with other genres, an exploration that gets me excited.

125 entries in this series and counting. Is everybody still having fun? I am! Also: I have music for you!

Craw, “Drugs”

You know, I should really be backing more music on Kickstarter. The Craw reissue project is one of my very favorites among things I’ve backed on the site.

Elliot Smith, “Ballad of Big Nothing”

Indie rock genius Elliot Smith here with a song from his best album, Either/Or. Discussing his biography always makes me sad, given his tragic early departure at 34, possibly by suicide (it was never definitively ruled a suicide). And there I go, starting to discuss his biography. Well, Either/Or is one of the triumphs of the 90s, and is just a tremendous album front to back.

Some authentically old music, and some music that wishes it was older than it is.

Craw, “Eidolons”

I really cannot emphasize how happy it makes me that there are folks that are going back into our past and bringing bands to our attention. Craw’s revival via Kickstarter is one great example, but also labels like Light in the Attic and Numero Group are doing great work. There are so many amazing bands who might have not gotten a fair shake the first time around, and finding them is fantastic. Anyway, Craw is really good!

I don’t know about anybody else, but I still haven’t adjusted to new releases being on Fridays. For a long, long period of my life, Tuesdays were just a little more exciting than other weekdays, because it was when new music came out. I miss that. I’m old. But I have music for you!

Craw, “Days in the Gutter/Nights in the Gutter”

Craw was an underground rock band from Cleveland playing music in the vein of bands like the Jesus Lizard, Bitch Magnet, etc. Note my delicate avoidance of the “post-hardcore” label! Note, also, that I still managed to get it in there. At any rate, despite being very plugged into that scene at the time, and even living not far away in Pittsburgh, I managed to completely miss them. However, thanks to a Kickstarter project, their three albums got reissued, and it’s great stuff. It really was a pleasure discovering a new band from that scene and suddenly having three albums of material to listen to. There’s a strong Steve Albini vibe to this track, which is OK by me!