The oddly named Cripple and Casino is an excellent band from Croatia, and their self-titled debut full-length was released by Olympia, Washington-based label Radio is Down sometime last year. I was familiar with neither the band nor the label prior to receiving this album for review, but I love situations like this where I'm randomly taken by surprise and really dig a random album I had never heard of before—especially when it's from somewhere like Croatia, since you just don't get exposed to Croatian acts every day, you know? The band describes their sound as a combination of "post-punk, noise rock, and post-hardcore" that continues "the sonic legacy of Fugazi, The Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth, Jawbox, etc." Admittedly I don't listen to a ton of bands of this nature, but I'm always interested to hear more quality music from this general realm, and I certainly agree with their assessment of their sound (which has a definite 90's vibe, in my opinion). Most of the vocals are kind of half-spoken, half-shouted, or half-sung, and the music is loaded with a strong blend of caustic, angular riffing around roving basslines; driving "alt. rock" power chords; little bits and pieces of melody; and plenty of spacious breaks that let the rhythm section do most of the legwork. They do a great job of creating memorable (and almost catchy, at times) arrangements from all of these assorted sounds, and I really am a huge fan of this stuff, so I'm glad the band contacted me about checking out their work! Here's an idea of what to expect:
Cripple and Casino "Movie Star"
And the band has been kind enough to make the entire album available as a free download (in a variety of formats) from their Bandcamp page, so you can check out the whole thing over there:
[DOWNLOAD] Cripple and Casino "s/t" (@ Bandcamp)
Physical copies are available for just $10, though, so... don't hesitate to pick one up if you like what you hear:
Comments
God damn I love this. Some memorable songs here all the way through. Great bass guitar work on this album, nice and loud and heavy. Love the melodic screaming. Tight, competent drumming, heavy, bombastic. Cowbell. Guitars are played with skill, creative riffs. Croatia fucking rules. GOD DAMN. Just ordered.
4.20.2010 | By Marcus Garvey
This rules.
Isn’t this the second Croatian band you review?
4.21.2010 | By Birkir
I’ve written about Analena and a handful of other Croatian bands that are on Moonlee Records before, yeah. But you still don’t hear about bands from those areas all that often, in my opinion, heh!
4.21.2010 | By Andrew Aversionline
Very fucking nice. Jakartah, Gentle Veincut… And now this. I’m all over that kind of jangly, noisy, seemingly loose, borderline irritating “indie rock”. Nice throwback vibe too. Another great find by way of yet another band from my hometown that I can’t recall hearing about before (I have absolutely no life).
4.22.2010 | By Chris
Very nice indeed. It sorta proves me wrong that anything ‘pop’ or ‘rock’ just plain sucks. they only suck if they’re adopted by the radio networks. Hey Andrew keep digging up those gems.
4.27.2010 | By stevhan the invincible
Got mine in the mail. Nice packaging, simple and well done. Shipped very quickly. Worth the dough.
4.27.2010 | By Marcus Garvey