While recording a group of songs that would end up being part of
This World Just Eats Me Up Alive, Brian Crook took a break outside
with his bandmates. A small girl nearby ran up to a woman saying
“Mommy, mommy! There’s a vampire here!” The mother asked how
the girl knew it was a vampire, and the girl said, “He talks like this,”
and proceeded to do a growling impression of a New Zealand accent.
At the time, Brian was in a dark suit and had super long hair, and was
playing badminton….
Crook’s new solo album comprises eight years of recording, so
perhaps his undead appearance is not surprising; it comprises a span
of inspiration that seems almost vampiric, with themes suggested
by Greek mythology, a favorite 1960s author, to the abstract
electronics of Aphex Twin and Arca as influences. The album came
together in parts, slowly assembled with various contributors and
recording locations, the earliest trace having lyrical origins from 1991,
and was done during during sessions for The Terminals, Crook’s
other band (you can also add NZ legends Scorched Earth Policy and
Flies Inside The Sun to that list).
A near decade provides a lot of material for reflective songwriting.
In Crook’s revelations about life in New Zealand and his tenebrous
lyrical style there is more than a touch of comedy, albeit of a blackly
humorous, “South Island New Zealand” nature. The lyrics and music
come from a similar place as New Zealand painters Bill Hammond
and Tony de Latour, evoking a kind of ceremonial primitivism.
This World Just Eats Me Up Alive, Brian Crook took a break outside
with his bandmates. A small girl nearby ran up to a woman saying
“Mommy, mommy! There’s a vampire here!” The mother asked how
the girl knew it was a vampire, and the girl said, “He talks like this,”
and proceeded to do a growling impression of a New Zealand accent.
At the time, Brian was in a dark suit and had super long hair, and was
playing badminton….
Crook’s new solo album comprises eight years of recording, so
perhaps his undead appearance is not surprising; it comprises a span
of inspiration that seems almost vampiric, with themes suggested
by Greek mythology, a favorite 1960s author, to the abstract
electronics of Aphex Twin and Arca as influences. The album came
together in parts, slowly assembled with various contributors and
recording locations, the earliest trace having lyrical origins from 1991,
and was done during during sessions for The Terminals, Crook’s
other band (you can also add NZ legends Scorched Earth Policy and
Flies Inside The Sun to that list).
A near decade provides a lot of material for reflective songwriting.
In Crook’s revelations about life in New Zealand and his tenebrous
lyrical style there is more than a touch of comedy, albeit of a blackly
humorous, “South Island New Zealand” nature. The lyrics and music
come from a similar place as New Zealand painters Bill Hammond
and Tony de Latour, evoking a kind of ceremonial primitivism.
TRACK LISTING
1. Black Mariah
2. Dragged Both Ways
3. This World Just Eats Me Up
4. The Smoking Singularity
5. Sissyphus
6. Poisoning The Well
7. Joyce Carol Oates