Craw: 1993-1997
Reviews
Your Imaginary Friend
Reviewed 2015-11-10
Reviewed 2015-11-10
Rerelease of obscure recordings of Cleveland band from late 80's-90's. Midwest/Chicago Touch and Go Records sound (but not on that label). Steve Albini recorded this stuff and oh how it shows. For fans of all things Scratch Acid, Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Loga, heavy In Utero era Nirvana. Huge guitar bass drums as only Albini does (think bomb going off). Screamed desperate cathartic primal vocals like David Yow. This stuff has aged well. A triple record set being released on Northern Spy this December. All songs kinda have the same overall feel, follow a path of sorts: heavy pounding, sometimes chill but exploding, desperate vocs, so really pick any as track by track descriptions get redundant.
Self titled (very Scratch Acid)
1) (2:05) driving pounding. 2) (5:09) big heaviness with slow breakdowns 3)* (6:10) begins w found sound weird sample, halting heavy 4) (4:40) big heavy. 5) FCC? 6) (4:06) begins with mellow waltzing guitar builds of course, ends cold 7) (4:21) crunchy 8)* (7:19) nice feedback noise then a triplet type beat 9) (5:01) big bass 10)* (4:51) slow creepy intro, cool 11) (4:54) cool noise intro then near chugging beat mixed w slowness 12) (4:36) kinda epic chords 13) (5:03) begins slow quiet 14) (5:41) slow dirgey
Lost Nation Road (seems to delve from the recipe a bit, more interesting stuff in here)
1) (15, 4:39) duel screamed vocals, big bass, very Scratch Acid 2)* (16, 4:41) dark mean fades nicely into next play together 3)* (17, 5:30) starts slow multifaceted 4) (18, 2:54) skronking screaming sax gives this spastic jazz tone 5) (19, 6:43) cool dark intense tone, mathy with great noise in end 6) (20, 5:20) another dark one 7)* (21, 6:26) cool noise intro, almost jazzy element to this, more interesting 8)* (22, 6:11) cool stuff with samples at end 9) (23, 4:03) tritoned and mathy, slow breakdown 10) (24, 5:36) cool very Jesus Lizard
Map Monitor Surge
1) (25, 8:11) big drama 2) (26, 4:49) intense. 3) (27, 3:49) more intensity 4) (28, 3:44) mathy heavy 5) (29, 6:10) more 6) (30, 0:58) this and the following two are almost identical 7) (31, 1:10) mathy intense 8) (32, 1:10) identical to previous sorta 9) (33, 4:08) epic 10) (34, 4:05) kinda jazzy to start 11) (35, 4:37) more. 12)* (36, 12:05) long and epic
Self titled (very Scratch Acid)
1) (2:05) driving pounding. 2) (5:09) big heaviness with slow breakdowns 3)* (6:10) begins w found sound weird sample, halting heavy 4) (4:40) big heavy. 5) FCC? 6) (4:06) begins with mellow waltzing guitar builds of course, ends cold 7) (4:21) crunchy 8)* (7:19) nice feedback noise then a triplet type beat 9) (5:01) big bass 10)* (4:51) slow creepy intro, cool 11) (4:54) cool noise intro then near chugging beat mixed w slowness 12) (4:36) kinda epic chords 13) (5:03) begins slow quiet 14) (5:41) slow dirgey
Lost Nation Road (seems to delve from the recipe a bit, more interesting stuff in here)
1) (15, 4:39) duel screamed vocals, big bass, very Scratch Acid 2)* (16, 4:41) dark mean fades nicely into next play together 3)* (17, 5:30) starts slow multifaceted 4) (18, 2:54) skronking screaming sax gives this spastic jazz tone 5) (19, 6:43) cool dark intense tone, mathy with great noise in end 6) (20, 5:20) another dark one 7)* (21, 6:26) cool noise intro, almost jazzy element to this, more interesting 8)* (22, 6:11) cool stuff with samples at end 9) (23, 4:03) tritoned and mathy, slow breakdown 10) (24, 5:36) cool very Jesus Lizard
Map Monitor Surge
1) (25, 8:11) big drama 2) (26, 4:49) intense. 3) (27, 3:49) more intensity 4) (28, 3:44) mathy heavy 5) (29, 6:10) more 6) (30, 0:58) this and the following two are almost identical 7) (31, 1:10) mathy intense 8) (32, 1:10) identical to previous sorta 9) (33, 4:08) epic 10) (34, 4:05) kinda jazzy to start 11) (35, 4:37) more. 12)* (36, 12:05) long and epic
Recent airplay
New Plastics Diet Alters Man's Dna
Oh Messy Life — May 16, 2024
Cobray To The North (1993 - Self-Titled)
Brownian Motion — Jan 20, 2016
Cobray To The North (1993 - Self-Titled)
a strange pursuit — Jan 19, 2016
Botulism, Cholera + Tarik (1994 - Lost Nation Road
Brownian Motion — Jan 13, 2016
Aphasia (1993 - Self-Titled)
a strange pursuit — Jan 12, 2016
Wordfall (1993 - Self-Titled)
Music Casserole — Jan 02, 2016
Charting
2015-11-15 — 2016-01-17
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| Jan 17 | 2 |
| Jan 3 | 1 |
| Dec 27 | 1 |
| Dec 6 | 2 |
| Nov 29 | 2 |
| Nov 22 | 2 |
Track listing
| 1. | Aphasia (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 2. | 405 (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 3. | Cobray To The North (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 4. | 1st Wednesday Of The Month (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 5. | Elliot (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 6. | Moira Is Vanishing (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 7. | To The Child Reader (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 8. | Wordfall (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 9. | My Sister's Living Room (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 10. | Thinnest Line (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 11. | Stomp (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 12. | Echolocating (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 13. | Eidolons (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 14. | Slower (1993 - Self-Titled) | ||
| 15. | Sound Of Every Promise (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 16. | Strongest Human Bond (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 17. | Bypass (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 18. | Botulism, Cholera + Tarik (1994 - Lost Nation Road | ||
| 19. | Lifelike (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 20. | I Fought Dirty (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 21. | All This Has Made Me (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 22. | Shocklight (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 23. | Feesh Crik (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 24. | As Long As The Turnpike (1994 - Lost Nation Road) | ||
| 25. | Treading Out The Winepress | ||
| 26. | Unsolicited, Unsavory | ||
| 27. | I Disagree (And Here's Why) | ||
| 28. | Rip And Read | ||
| 29. | I Am Gunk | ||
| 30. | Killer Microbes Devour Cleveland | ||
| 31. | New Plastics Diet Alters Man's Dna | ||
| 32. | Parasitic Dad Evades Biocops | ||
| 33. | Divinity Of Laughter | ||
| 34. | Hayfield Jim's Texas Trip | ||
| 35. | Creating The New Paranoid Man | ||
| 36. | Days In The Gutter / Nights In The Gutter |