On election night, Eric Bachmann and his Crooked Fingers crew came through town to play a show at the Tree Bar with John Vanderslice. Here’s a sublime version of “Sleep All Summer” off the 2005 Merge release Dignity & Shame.
Tag Archives: Crooked Fingers
Video: Crooked Fingers – “Sleep All Summer” (live @ the Tree Bar)
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Tagged Crooked Fingers, Eric Bachmann, John Vanderslice, Tree Bar
Crooked Fingers, John Vanderslice coming to the Tree Bar
Eric Bachmann returns to the Tree Bar, this time as Crooked Fingers, and he’s bringing John Vanderslice along with him. The show is Tuesday, Nov. 6, and the $15 tickets will be on sale at the Tree Bar starting Monday at 7 p.m.
Obviously, this show will sell out, so if you’re as excited as I am about seeing these guys in such an intimate venue (now with an unobstructed view!), I’d recommend getting to the Tree on Monday.
May we never take you for granted, Kyle Sowash.
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Posted in Columbus
Tagged Crooked Fingers, Eric Bachmann, John Vanderslice, Tree Bar
Listen: Crooked Fingers – “Bad Blood (acoustic)” premiere
Crooked Fingers’ Breaks in the Armor was one of my favorite records released last year — Eric Bachmann’s best since Red Devil Dawn, I’d argue. If you pre-ordered the album through the Merge store, you also got a bonus download with acoustic versions of the songs. Now Breaks in the Armor: Acoustic Demo Version is getting an official release on iTunes and the Merge store. Give a listen to the beautifully stripped-down “Bad Blood” below:
Bachmann said of the demos, “Recording a stripped-down version of a song reveals its flaws. It also lets you hear the space you have to work with before you crowd it with ideas that can muddle the point. I don’t like to add drums or arrange songs with Crooked Fingers until I feel like the writing itself has reached a point. That’s why I record demos as stripped-down versions…
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Posted in Stream
Tagged Archers of Loaf, Breaks in the Armor, Crooked Fingers, Demos, Eric Bachmann
Favorite Albums of 2011: Joel Oliphint
This year’s list of favorites is fairly sedate (even for me), with just a little ruckus here and there. Lots of morning-coffee music, which I guess says something about my 2011. But music’s strength is its pliability. It can be whatever you need it to be at the moment, especially when we have instant access to virtually any song ever recorded, often for free. Judging by this list, I needed music to be a salve more than a release valve this year.
I also never expected my favorite album to come from someone who held the spot previously, but the iTunes “most played” playlist doesn’t lie. It’s a divisive one, but people who like it really like it.
I picked 15 favorites and several honorable mentions, plus a Favorite Columbus Albums list below — separate but equal in enjoyment and quality. As usual, I limit my lists to albums, so some EPs and 7”s I liked (e.g. Envelope, Sundown, Malefactors of Great Wealth, Dolfish) aren’t listed.
That is all.
MP3: Grand Champion Steer
As Chip said about Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver, “One wouldn’t expect the heavily tattooed Cincinnati songwriter to produce his best collection of songs this late in his already highly-prolific career, but that’s exactly what he’s done.”
14. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
TV On The Radio – “Will Do” by Interscope Records
13. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
MP3: Come to the City
12. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
Tom Waits – Bad As Me by antirecords
I’ve never been a Tom Waits fanboy, but this record grabbed me and didn’t let go. Continue reading
Posted in 2011 Favorites, Columbus, MP3
Tagged AA Bondy, Bicentennial Bear, Bill Callahan, Black Swans, blueprint, Bon Iver, Centro-Matic, Crooked Fingers, David Bazan, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Kurt Vile, lydia loveless, Psandwich, Psychedelic Horseshit, Saintseneca, Southeast Engine, The Lindsay, The Regionals, Times New Viking, Tom Waits, TV on the Radio, Wussy, Youth Lagoon
New Crooked Fingers album on Merge this fall
Right on the heels of those Archers of Loaf reunion shows and Icky Mettle reissue… This is good news.
Neko Case New MP3, Charity, Columbus Show
Call it payola for a good cause, but every blog (like this one), that links to the new Neko Case song People Got A Lotta Nerve, her label will donate $5 to the Best Friends Animal Society. I woulda posted it even without the extra enticement. More details here.
Neko will be in Columbus on April 23 at the Newport Music Hall with Crooked Fingers. Find more Columbus shows in our Columbus Music Calendar.
MP3: People Got a Lotta Nerve by Neko Case
I Think The Crooked Fingers Album Artwork Should Date the Deerhoof Album Artwork
Behold: Crooked Fingers new album on the left, new Deerhoof on the right:
(okay, it’d have to be a three way relationship, but still)
MP3: Offend Maggie by Deerhoof
MP3: Phony Revolutions by Crooked Fingers
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Posted in MP3
Tagged Crooked Fingers, Deerhoof
Crooked Fingers MP3: Phony Revolutions
MP3: Phony Revolutions
Seeing Eric Bachmann solo a few months ago was one of my favorite live shows of the year. His voice, lyrics and songs always equal something that I can’t get out of my head. Now that he’s releasing a new album under his Crooked Fingers name, I’m hoping to catch him live again soon.
Forfeit / Fortune comes out October 7. It includes a duet with Neko Case, some beautifully sung Spanish songs, and so much more. I wouldn’t feel twitchy calling this album “eclectic”. Pre-order it here.
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Posted in MP3
Tagged Crooked Fingers, Eric Bachmann
Interview With Eric Bachmann
I’m going to make this brief. You should know who Eric Bachmann (former Archers of Loaf frontman and the guy currently behind Crooked Fingers) is. You don’t need me to blab about all the great work he’s done, particularly the four CF records, and besides I’m late in posting this feature. I will say that right now he’s on tour promoting last year’s equally impressive To the Races (Saddle Creek), which is the first proper album he’s done under his own name. (He released a movie score for Ball of Wax under his birth name in 2002.) The album was written while he was living in a van in Seattle, and recorded in the middle of winter at a deserted motel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. So anyway, I talked to him on the phone last week, and he’ll be at Andyman’s Treehouse tonight, with local Eric Metronome opening.
I hear you’re hocking Cuban sandwiches in Denver.
Not anymore. I was last summer. I had a little sandwich stand and it was good, but I’m touring now.
So no one’s running it for you?
No, I couldn’t find anyone to make the bread. I was making my own bread and I didn’t know anyone that could do it.
So there was a dearth of Cuban sandwiches in Denver?
There were none that were that good. I know how to make them because I spent sometime growing up in Florida. It was always something I wanted to do, and something to get my head out of the music business shell. I’m really glad that I did it, but I don’t think I would do a cart again; I’d do a storefront. There’s so many laws for vending carts and they don’t make it easy to make money.
Are you into cooking in general or is it just sandwiches that are your forte?
No, I like to cook. I’m not the best cook in the world, but I like to do it. Continue reading