Carcrashlander
Mountains On Our Backs (Jealous Butcher)
Release Date: April 7, 2009
1. Mountains On Our Backs
2. Dollar Store Halo (mp3)
3. Capillary Webs
4. Killingsworth Frost
5. Quoting Dead Comedians
6. Driveway
7. Coast To Coast
8. Bone Noose (mp3)
9. Warm Behind The Walls
The first sound we hear on Mountains On Our Backs is a screeching crash of guitar and cymbals; throughout the album, strings bend, notes clash, sounds distort, waver, feed back. Being alluring to the listener is not Carcrashlander’s main object; here, music is valued as much for its harshness as its sweetness – or anything in between – as long as it’s true to the song. The storm passes and the beauty shows through: there’s a beat to sway to, a line that catches our ear and makes us smile.
As we get to know the album, its harsh and sweet parts integrate. In “Capillary Webs” we pick out the keyboard melody – it’s almost cute – that lies under the top layer of siren-wailing guitars. The eerie jangle in “Driveway” is suddenly recognizable as a toy piano. And we start to detect the sharp edge to Cory Gray’s gentle murmur, hearing lines like, “You wake up sick / it’s business as usual / eventually takes its toll on your body / forget your soul / buildings you pass through are looming like gravestones.” ‘
“Bone Noose” is my favorite of the moment. I like the vigor of the drum track and the doggerel delivery of the lyric, a reassuring contrast to the spookiness of everything else. And it has a lick that comes back to me when I’m walking down the street; first it’s played simultaneously by bendy guitar and organ, then it’s picked up as “ooh”s by a choir of phantoms. I don’t know what a bone noose is…and I don’t think I want to know.
Sometimes we can be tricked into enjoying music that, after a few listens, proves to be calculated and empty – a catchy melody becomes maddening; a lyric is finally deciphered and turns out to be puerile gobbledygook. Maybe because Carcrashlander isn’t out to snare me, but instead lets me explore the songs however I please (there are no flashing lights and big arrows telling me which direction to turn in, or what I should be paying attention to), the discoveries I make are particularly satisfying – they are my own discoveries.
- Lucy Lehmann
Mountains On Our Backs was recorded in one day at Secret Society and mixed in one day at Flora by John Askew, except for tracks 2, 8 and 9, which were recorded at Audible Alchemy by Brandon Eggleston and mixed with John Askew at Scenic Burrows. The record will be released by Jealous Butcher on April 21, 2009. Carcrashlander’s Self-Titled debut full-length was released by Parks And Records in 2008. The band also put out a 7-inch titled All Y’all (People In A Position To Know Records) in 08.
Recently, Gray and crew finished recording their third full-length, Where To Swim, with Brandon Eggleston. Release date and label TBA. For more information, go to www.myspace.com/carcrashlander or www.jealousbutcher.com.
Press Contact: Chuck Daley / Beartrap PR / chuck@beartrappr.com / (704) 649-7128
