Crooked Fingers - Breaks In The Armor

While Archers Of Loaf are back in fits and starts, the primary focal point for all things Eric Bachmann since the new millennium has been Crooked Fingers. While the spartan beauty of the tracks has always remained consistent, the instrumentation and arrangement have always been in flux. Recent times have found Bachmann working with a female foil. Liz Durrett has filled that role in recent years and reprises it here, adding polish and shine to darkly inviting tracks like Black Candles and Your Apocalypse. There is bad dark and good dark, and I'd put Crooked Fingers in the latter camp. Hurt and loss are the bedrock of Breaks In The Armor but the womblike warmth of the music leaves things in much more of of a hopeful place, more 2am sober contemplative than 4am drunken self-flagellation.

Get Breaks In The Armor here from the good folk of Merge Records. Come for the studio version and maybe double down and get yourself the whole enchilada in acoustic demo form, too. Crooked Fingers info portal is here.

R

Live: Archers Of Loaf with Mr. Perfect @ Webster Hall 6.26.11

Until David forwarded me the link to their reunion set at the Cradle, I hadn't realized that an Archers reunion was even on the radar. Eric had been doing Web In Front during solo shows in recent years and Matt had been in Band Of Horses for a bit, but it seemed that AOL were a vestige of a bygone era.

Evidently not, as the gents have managed to get it together for a fair amount of decent sized reunion dates. They played Fallon, too, where America got to enjoy the Gentling stage elan. This set was maybe not sold out, but like the D-Plan shows a couple months previous, the old Ritz was full of a decent mix of old-timers and kids who missed them the first time around.

Mr. Perfect opened, a band evidently comprised of a bunch of ex-Pitchfork (web blaggers, not Reis/Froberg franchise) that were ok, but suffered for no one in the room coming expressly to see them. They vacillated between playing as an intriguing three piece and a boring four piece and were gone in short order.

Archers Of Loaf arrived with little in the way of fanfare, opening with Strangled By The Stereo Wire, and touching upon most of what passed for the hits, along with some deep cuts like Smokin' Pot In The Hot City. Nobody looked especially old and everybody sounded great, garnering us a couple encores as well. The only real impediment was the presence of the worlds most irritating Superchunk fan, a constant irritation from NJ who shall go nameless here that unfortunately seems to have a liking for AOL as well. While he sadly went unmolested by Webster Hall security, the show was a good time. Archers were in fine fettle for their 24 forays into nostalgia. While I would expect there will not be a new album, unless maybe we get a DVD at tour's end, Merge is evidently re-releasing all four of the Archers studio records, starting with Icky Mettle on 8/2. Get the skinny here and see the boys if you are able to.

R

Crooked Fingers - Forfeit/Fortune deluxe edition

Eric Bachmann is one enormous enigma, literally and figuratively. You should remember him from his tenure fronting the exceedingly awesome Archers Of Loaf, a band that is increasing becoming the go-to carcass for unimaginative bands looking to rip off songs. Once Team AOL was formally scuttled post-Atlantic signing, most Bachmannophiles (myself included) were a little taken aback by his dropping his voice an octave and getting in touch with his inner Johnny Cash. Those first two NYC shows were real eye-openers. It wasn't until the close of the Brownies show where he debuted The Rotting Strip that things really started to make sense for me. I still wasn't totally on board, but it was hard to dispute that song's greatness and it definitely bode well for his new Waits-ian direction.

Eric debuted Crooked Fingers soon after on Athens, GA indie WARM, displaying a more adult direction driven by subtle electronics and nylon string work, with special guests drunken sorrow and depression. Could have been the relocation to Seattle, I guess. Bad luck and sorrow aside, the Crooked Fingers got better and better. The Red Devil Dawn soundtrack followed on Merge, as did the absolutely stellar Dignity and Shame. The last couple of years have found Eric releasing a solo record on Saddle Creek and living in a van outside of Seattle, hopefully of his own volition. The solo tour was ok, and featured the return of some old AOL favorites, but it really only whetted my appetite for the formal return of Crooked Fingers.

Wonderfully enough, the wait is over. Eric is releasing the newest Crooked Fingers on his own label though Constant Artist/Red Pig. Normally, I could see that meaning cost-cutting measures such as rudimentary packaging or shorter records but the deluxe pre-release comes in a great double gatefold with a bonus DVD. Musically, it appears that this will be a grower. The songs are decent, but even after the fifth or sixth spin, I'm still trying to figure out his intentions on some of the songs. There are female vocals and songs in Spanish to keep things interesting, but I'm waiting for the moment when the planets align for me and Forfeit/Fortune really clicks for me. I thought it might be the two shows earlier this week, but I dropped the ball, so it looks like its back to the stereo set for this old man. And to the store for you all. Buy Forfeit/Fortune here and check out for new tourdates here

The Serious Geniuses - You Can Steal the Riffs, But You Can't Steal The Talent

You've got to give these kids points for their moxy, if nothing else. They definitely are coming out swinging, or talking, really. There's not a huge amount of genius, per se, on You Can Steal The Riffs, But You Can't Steal The Talent, but golly if there isn't a whole lot of irony, especially when one looks at the boldface Archers Of Loaf rip-off that is Echo Made. The track Station is more of a Small jock, but rest assured that the Early 90s North Carolina scene is well represented in these kids MP3 collections. 

The record is ok, but the bastardization of Archers Of Loaf and Taking Back Sunday is a little grating for me. I was a big fan of the first TBS record, but it was obvious they wouldn't be able to pull it off live (and that maybe the lead singer was kind of a douche). You Can is the 2008 version of Taking Back Sunday's debut Tell All Your Friends, without being so heavy on the ProTools tweaking and auto-tune. There are some moments, like on the closing Unique, where they show glimmers of being their own band, but at this point they are a little transparent in the influences department. They are doing a fair bit of touring and will be at The Fest this year. Rolling in with a name like that, they better be bringing their A game in the Fall. Provided the modest ones survive the trip, I'm interested to see what the next record will sound like after a little more time on the road. They have a split 7" with the horribly named Jean Claude Jam Band out on Kiss Of Death, but I'm not sure when this record is actually going to be released, but I'll keep you posted. It will be on Kiss Of Death, although there's no mention of it on the KOD website currently. It appears that you maybe can buy it at the shows, if you are so inclined. Check the links below. 

Lucero tonight with Townes Earle on a boat in a thunderstorm.  

This could be unpleasant.

Review tomorrow.

R

www.myspace.com/theseriousgeniuses

www.seriousgeniuses.com

www.kissofdeath.com