A good 10 years since disbanding, Sydney’s iconic rock band CROW reformed.
From the press release:
Fronted by dual vocalists/guitarists/songwriters, Peter Fenton and Peter Archer … and backed by the fine talents of drummer John Fenton and bassist Jim Woff, CROW makes a long-awaited return with its ORIGINAL line-up.
For those who need a reminder, throughout the 90’s, CROW released three critically acclaimed albums – the Aria nominated ‘My Kind Of Pain’ plus the much respected ‘Li-Lo-ing’ and ‘Play With Love’. A favourite to many on the live circuit, a CROW performance could be a “shambolic affair” one minute, and then utterly breathtaking the next… an audience’s interest was never left wanting at a CROW show. They toured with the likes of Jeff Buckley, Nirvana, Sebadoh, Pavement and Sonic Youth amongst others, and were touted as the ‘best band in Australia since The Birthday Party’ (Juice Magazine 1998). After a number of band member replacements, in 1998 they parted ways…much to the disappointment of their legion of fans and the industry alike.
Fast track to 2009, CROW were asked to play as part of the ‘That Was Then, This Is Now’ series at Sydney’s Factory Theatre with HOSS. Re-igniting the fire in their belly, and re-kindling a passion for the CROW sound, the band played a couple more shows before going onto record a new album, their fourth, at Sydney’s Cad Factory in Marrickville. Mixed by Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil), ‘Arcane’ sees the band back in truly excellent form…some will argue “Best form”. In the immortal words of Mr Moginie, “Arcane by Crow is a bloody good record…Bands that retire early or fade off into the glorious Australian sunset prematurely can return with a vengeance, in this case a song led recovery and not a once round the block cash in/ hypefest. Dark and soulful music such as this, intelligently done and strongly and imaginatively delivered will always win the hearts and minds.”
In Peter V Fenton’s words, “We are immensely proud of this record. It feels more a culmination to us than a mere return to the service of rock! The songs are alongside some of the best that we have ever released and personally, we feel, as a band, stronger and more in tune with each other than ever.”
CROW – ARCANE is out now through Nonzero/Shock Records.
