Crain! A Funny(ish) Jon Cook Story, Some Live Recordings and Two 7
POSTED THURSDAY 05.27.10
All these years later, all I really remember is that it didn't go particularly well.
Listening back to this tape fifteen years later, I'm amazed that I didn't tape over this, but well, blame the pack rat in me.
What we've got here is Louisville's own Crain at the 40 Watt in 1994. I was running late and as I walked in the doors at the club, people were saying that the band was asking for me from the stage between every song. I'm sure you, the intrepid reader, are wondering why. Well, that's easy.
Crain @ the Capitol Theatre Backstage, Olympia ©James Bertram
I had started writing in Athens less than 18 months earlier and I pleaded to do an interview with Crain for their upcoming gig opening for Bad Brains. Yeah, Bad Brains. Anyway, I arranged the interview and talked to Jon Cook for about 20 minutes. And what happened during said interview? Nothing. Absolutely. For twenty minutes.
Now granted, I was still new at the whole interviewing business, but as time has worn on I've discovered that Mr. Cook is/was notorious for being sort of, well, eccentric. Some might even say "textbook Louisville". Then again, I was never much for textbooks. Wait, where was I? Oh right, Crain.
The article I wrote for Crain's (one and only) Athens show talked exclusively about the weather in Louisville and any other topic that Jon spouted off during our brief conversation. Any attempt I made to redirect or bring us back on topic was met with utter confusion. So, well, that's it. It's not much of a story, but that's the story.
Crain live
I had recently purchased a Sony hand held tape recorder to take around in Athens and was super excited to give it a crack on Crain's gig. I remember being so excited to see them that I just hastily hit record and stood front and center as they were saying "this is our last song" and then followed with "Is Henry here?" All these years later I'm left guessing as to why they were asking for me, but I guess the legend of it is always better than the truth, right?
I'm also including mp3s of Crain's two singles which are both outta print and pretty killer. I still love that period before this style of music was calculated, recalculated and recalculated again. But that's math rock, huh?
And finally, I've been encoding a bunch of old tapes from back in Athens this past week and one find was yet ANOTHER Crain gig from a month after the 40 Watt gig at the Somber Reptile. I remember not being able to attend because of a work commitment the next morning so I passed my tape recorder off to (then newly acquired pal) Jerry Fuchs. Of course Jerry recorded the show and you can still hear him talking in between songs to friends. I'm including a link to this for friends of Jerry. God, it's been six months and I still miss that fucker VERY sorely.
NOTE: Wanna check out more killer vids by other Louisville bands like Sunspring, The Enkindels and Endpoint? Click here.
SECOND NOTE: If you haven't already, buy the Crain reissue on Temporary Residence and the pre-Crain band Cerebellum's reissue at Noise Pollution.
THIRD NOTE: I was just given a previously unreleased Crain jam called "UFO Song/Mirror Mirror". Enjoy!
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Crain - Crackhouse (Crackhouse 7)
