Bring On The Snakes

Crooked Fingers	Red Devil Dawn The third full-length and first on Merge from one of the rock underground's most enigmatic songwriters - Eric Bachmann (ex-Archers Of Loaf frontman). Intricate tales of desperation, betrayal, loss and survival. 2003.	Dignity and Shame Erich Bachman continues his plunge into good ole Americana on the Crooked Fingers' fourth longplayer. This time, it's a Southwestern-leaning record; the opening track, "Islero," is a delightful, mariachi-inspired instrumental. These Calexico-ish touches, however, are primarily wi...	Reservoir Songs	To the Races In the early 1990s, Eric Bachmann achieved a modicum of success by playing decent, fun, and derivative indie rock that borrowed heavily from music that groups like Pavement, Versus, and Superchunk had made a year or two earlier. It's a touch ironic, then, that today Bachmann's re...
Icky Mettle Like fellow indie rockers Pavement, Archers of Loaf excel in making uneasy-listening pop, with sharp, angular guitars jutting this way and that, barring the listener from turning any corner without a little work. Vocalist/guitarist Eric Bachmann is as committed a rock singer as y...	Vee Vee	White Trash Heroes Ever since their 1993 debut, Archers of Loaf have served up fiesty slack anthems for the indie-rock set. On White Trash Heroes, they add keyboards and double the decibels. The result is dense and chewy, with "One Slight Wrong Move" doing a dance with the ghost of Styx's "Mr. Robo...	For Emma, Forever Ago It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked ...	The Midnight Organ Fight They call themselves Frightened Rabbit, but there's nothing shy or timid about this Glasgow trio. On The Midnight Organ Fight, singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison says what he thinks--what he feels--and he doesn't hold anything back. That doesn't make the follow-up to 2006's Sings t...

Less coherent album, but consistently great songs...
This second record seems unfairly judged as the weak sibling of the lineup, but there's not a single loser here, songwise. Maybe it's a little less sure-footed as a unit?, as Bachmann clearly has a lot of directions in mind. Try "Doctors of Deliverance" to get a feel for this album's general tempo, or "Every Dull Moment" as the most finessed electric guitar in the entire catalog. All his different potentials are alluded to here, "Surrender is Treason" back toward the first album, "The Rotting Strip" toward the next Red Devil Dawn, and "Devil's Train" toward Bachmann's later solo record, To The Races. But "Here Comes the Snakes" might encapsulate the appeal of the entire body of work, both sad and stirring and so nimbly delicate. Overall, this would be the album to play later at the party, when everyone is talked out and wants to just shut up and be transported into their own private reflections, while in the company of good friends.

I love Neil Diamond!
I saw these guys in concert last year and was quite impressed. The CD doesn't quite capture the rawness of the concert or the ensemble feel of the guitar, drum, stand-up bass set-up they used (too much digital blooping and bleeping for what could otherwise be very bluesy and earthy). Some good songs, but some of the lyrics don't stand up to repeated listening. And some of the acoustic guitar work is excellent, but sadly there just isn't enough of it on the CD. I find hints of Nick Drake, but then they disappear, or of Nick Cave, but then they just don't develop, but mostly of Neil Diamond, which I mean respectfully, but still Neil Diamond.

Amazing...
If I was stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one album, this would be it. Moody, passionate, this album is both beautiful and sad at the same time. Musically, it's some kind of trance Appalachian rock folk for this generation. That is, it captures the way most of the current generation feels. Every song is about being lost, or broken, or old and worn. The singer is obsessed with finding the cure, the rebirth, becoming new again. Just maybe, he finds it by the last track, There's A Blue Light. Someone said this is the new Bob Dylan. I wouldn't disagree. But its darker, more sinister. You could easily put this album on, and stare at the wall in apathy with tears in your eyes before realizing you've just listened to the entire thing. But it is not just that there is a sad overtone to the music here. Beauty can bring tears as well. This album is so perfect it makes me cry. Buy this album, but also get the first self-titled one, which is nearly as good as (or on some days is even better than) this one. But beware: Listening to Crooked Fingers will make all other music sound dull in comparison for the rest of your life.

Grows on you like an addiction
Moody and smooth and hits the right notes

Haunting and Beautiful
In Crooked Fingers, Eric Bachman has created two masterpieces of albums that any self-respecting melancholy music fan should own. Best described as melodic drunken bar music, Bring On The Snakes is a story cd above any others, crafting and weaving the best song tales since Bob Dylan. If you love AoL, great. If you hate them-well, too bad, but that's no reason not to get this completely different, vastly superior effort. A perfect album.