| RiverFront Times - St. Louis, MO |
|
Few musicians will readily admit to changing their styles in a drastic way
because of a shift in what they're listening to at any point in time. And it
also takes some guts to suggest that you've been following the wrong
musical path - not a bad one, but one that wasn't necessarily best suited to
your talents. As his former band, the Sude Chain, began to go through the process of dismantling, guitarist Brian Krumm started listening to a bit of Tom Waits. The drummer he was jamming with turned him on to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Suddenly new song ideas were flowing and heading in a surprising new direction. The results of all that became the basis for his newest band, the Great Crusades. "I guess in the Suede Chain, as far as lyrics, I never expressed myself as well or as completely as in these songs," Krumm says of his newest project. "There was this whole new set of influences - things that I had never listened to up till that point. In the Suede Chain, there was a combination of so many influences. The second album (Piloted by Ghosts) would have a country song, followed by a swing, then a rocker. This may come off as more focused. At least I hope it does." "It" is The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, the Great Crusades' debut album on Champaign's Mud Records. It's an album of considerable depth, and yeah, it certainly reflects the feel of the groups mentioned above. Krumm's vocals and always-fine guitar playing are ably complemented by the guitar of Rod van Huis, the drumming of Mike Rader and the bass of Brian Hunt, another Suede Chain alum, now residing in Chicago. Krumm, who sang backing and a bit of lead in the Sude Chain, sports a smoky, slightly raspy voice, one that neatly sums up his new approach to songwriting, which is instensity times two. These are hooks ("Mirror" and "Two Fishermen," in particular, have all the power and catchiness of perfect-world hits), but they're subservient to the overall mood and thematic subjects - drinking, breakups, carousing, London, smoking, race relations, more drinking. An eclectic, dark and smart mix of ideas and not at all happy. "I gave a lot of them to my friends as Christmas presents," Krumm says. "Not the cheeriest album, but that's what they got." As for his relatively easy transition to frontman, Krumm says, "I definitely like the singing thig. I don't know how much I like the frontman part. It comes with a lot of responsibilities and pressures. I'm not Bono - I'm not that kind of frontman. I seemed to be the one coming up with the most ideas, and no one else volunteered. I ended up doing it and ended up liking it." And his adopted hometown (Now residing in Chicago) provided the rest. A record label, Mud, that he'd already worked in the Suede Chain. A producer in the omnipresent Adam Schmitt. And the band. "One of the great things about living here is that there's a surplus of people to play with," Krumm says. With the exception of bassists. True, van Huis says, "We never had a reliable bass player. We played with six or seven different bassists. Then we found one, and he lives in Chicago." Though Hunt plays on the album and takes part in the groups limited touring, the one chink in the Great Crusades' armor is the fact that he's not around to rehearse on a more consistent basis. Krumm, used to frequent touring, has even considered "jumping in a car for 21 days, playing acoustically, trying to support the album, now that we have one." That said, what these four have created transcends the work produced by almost any act with local ties. It's really that good. more press |
|
