Music Review: The Rat Catcher by The Crux

One my goals for the music portion of this blog is to review my favorite local bands and shine a light on their work. In my opinion the coolest and weirdest music has always come out of the Bay Area. There are some very groovy things happening up in the North Bay in particular, and leading the charge is Josh Windmiller and the North Bay Hootenanny. More on that in a later blog post, in the meantime here is a review of his band The Crux and their fabulous Release: The Ratcatcher.

Today's entry is by my new heroes, The Crux (out of the North Bay). They have just dropped a stellar and mind blowing concept album called The Ratcatcher.

In this day and age there's a lot of emphasis on the single, the digital release, and the Youtube one off. The general sentiment is that the “album” is dead. To this I say Pashaw!! I think that going back to the days of listening to a body of work in it's entirety, as a single artistic statement, is the natural progression. As the pop world gets more and more shallow, formulaic and disposable with new media outlets, the real art down here in the trenches is getting deeper and more profound. The concept album is the life preserver thrown out to the sinking ship of the SS iTunes and there to pull us into the redemptive musical lifeboat is Josh and The Crux.

Their new record, The Ratcatcher is based on the Pied Piper of Hamelin and was originally the soundtrack for a live stage show produced up in the Santa Rosa area. There are rumors that the piece will be staged again next year sometime, if so I will be there. The album starts off with 'The Glorious Emporium of Decan E. Lude (Part I)' which grabs us by the short hairs and brings us right into the world of The Ratcatcher as the narrator croaks “Ah, hello, I hardly heard you come in...”. Once in, there's no looking away as the second track 'Buskers (The Cruel Sister)' plunges us right into a stunning, upbeat, folk murder ballad, reminiscent of Two Little Rosebuds or The Two Sisters. There is some great imagery surrounding the buskers making instruments from the murdered sister's bones, which become a Tell Tale Heart of sorts at the cruel sisters wedding. (Spoiler alert, it doesn't end well for the cruel sister).

The record charges on after that with the spooky carnival swing of 'Onward Soldiers' complete with hot horns and a shout chorus. I haven't heard skinny white people swing this well since Lee Presson and the Nails.

Then we move right into the four on the floor power of 'I Run (Who is the Rat Woman)', followed by the Disney nightmare waltz of 'Veredictum (The Attorney's Waltz), the Waits-esque 'The Baydeinn Boys' and the dirty blues of 'The Piper & the Devil'.

Finally in the second half of the record, we come to the exquisite 'Dogs Made of Rust (The Mayor's Ballad)' which is probably my favorite tune on the album. The song has that anthemic, timeless feel that makes one want to stoke the fire, shed a tear and raise a glass. The slow build brings you right to brink with nostalgic anticipation and then the drunken sing along at the end gives you the pay-off you've been waiting for.

Taking nothing away from the dynamic vocal work by Josh, if I had one complaint about the record it would be that there are not enough songs lead by Annie Cilley. She takes the lead on 'The Gate (What the Children Saw), and her voice has that jazz age warmth, range and power that is both sad and resilient against the drama unfolding in Hamelin.

The record technically ends with 'The Glorious Emporium of Decan E. Lude (Part II)' which leaves us chanting “This is the town we built, the Town we built!” but then there is a hidden track (another album throw back that I'm excited to see return) 'The Cheese Song' which reminds us all that life's still a party, even if there are rats everywhere.

Take the journey yourself. Pick up a copy, listen to it all at once, rinse, repeat.

My musical pairing for this post is Dogs Made of Rust: https://thecruxmusic.bandcamp.com/track/dogs-made-of-rust-the-mayors-ballad

All sorts of info on the Curx here:

http://thecruxmusic.com/