"I just let it happen"
CRICKETS' synth / guitar experimental punk / proto punk hearted track Intentionally Passive feels like a subversive sonic diatribe. Called minimal but actually tightly wound and running on synth, drum machine (who the hell love's drum machines?- I do), divergently rich guitar and "a rant of queer prose" to which I ask, who could want for more?
Now sit down as I tell you: CRICKETS is JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN), Michael O'Neill (MEN, Princess) and Roddy Bottum (Faith No More, Imperial Teen/Nastie Band).
Anyway, I love the sound here. There is something about it holistically that feels rather bombastic but mantric at the very same time. The vox are absolutely engaging (smiling). I love songs that you hear (especially live in a small venue) that somehow grab your soul but at the same time after it ends, you say to yourself "what the fuck was that?" Those are the best songs and 'Intentionally Passive' is that kind of song.
-Robb Donker Curtius
"We do best when we create within our parameters of shouting, repeating and holding back. This song is us getting comfortable with that formula for the first time. It works best played loud in a big empty room." @roddybottum
"One of the reasons I love playing "Intentionally Passive" so much is because I literally play 3 notes the entire song, and mostly it's just 1 note. We guitarists are usually tempted to shred and play so many notes and make so much noise. But this song really captures the spirit of CRICKETS, which is to strip away all the excess and really hone in on how to be the most effective with as little as possible." - @moneill312
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
CRICKETS Share “Intentionally Passive”
S/T Debut Album Out 7/17 on Muddguts
CRICKETS Are JD Samson (Le Tigre), Roddy Bottum (Faith No More), & Michael O’Neill (MEN)
CRICKETS Vinyl LP Presale
https://www.muddguts.shop/products/crickets-1
“hard-thwacking and energetic synth-punk” -Stereogum
“(Elastic) is a skronky electro indictment of toxic masculinity” - BrooklynVegan
CRICKETS have shared another song from their self-titled debut album due out July 17th via Muddguts Records. “Intentionally Passive” is driving and minimal with an escalating tension built around drones and an impassioned vocal. Listen to it here.
CRICKETS announced the album with the release of “Elastic”, a transfixing single dealing with overcoming toxic masculinity and finding real power in healing. The group is donating proceeds from that single to INCITE! and the Okra Project. Read Rolling Stone’s piece on the song and watch the “Elastic” video here.
Last week the group did a special release of “Bikelane” where they put forth each instrumental part of this composition separately. Not in total. The original work engages with issues of worth, intellectual property, and fears of never being "together" again. The "song", written in 2018, becomes even more relevant as they find themselves unable to be physically present in their reverberated huddle. What becomes of authorship as the consumption of may turn arguably less poetic? What does it sound like when instruments are written and recorded concurrently, but we hear them separately. Alone.
CRICKETS asked several visual and performing artists (Nicole Eisenman, Brontez Purnell, Matt Connors, and Mariana Valencia) to interpret/translate each aural stem from “Bikelan” in the form of a video without ever hearing the whole. Some played with the audio landscape, while others found rhythm of their own. Images fall off the cliff of each sound. Watch the videos here. Proceeds from this release will be donated to The Black Artist Fund
CRICKETS is JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN), Michael O'Neill (MEN, Princess) and Roddy Bottum (Faith No More, Imperial Teen/Nastie Band). The band’s sound is an exploration of minimalism, a celebration of restraint, a rant of queer prose set to a backdrop barrage of guitar, synthesizer and drum machine. Sounding like the collision of ESG, Suicide, and The Flying Lizards—or the distant, basement-funk cousin to Fever Ray—CRICKETS is gloriously and purposefully minimal.
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