This video starts with a pixelated photograph… it is not broken.
If a twist of reality could change for just a split second, I would become a Trojan computer virus, climb inside my laptop and kick the fuck out of codex and converters!
Still, I have finished editing and hope you enjoy.
Tom x
Ok punk rocker’s, let’s see if we can write a song together.
The rules – Wait for Mr Crook to leave the first comment/lyrics and you have to add to it. Write as much or as little as you like and once we have enough lyrics the Murderbirds will write the music and record the song. It might turn out to be anything from a ballad to a gypsy sea shanty… who knows.
Its just a bit of fun so everyone should get involved, the more input the better.
To all the people that contribute to this song – We might even get you all down to the un-awarehouse to make the video.
We will post the song and video up on the website when its finished and everyone will get a name credit.
Lets have a good clean fight people… get writing those lyrics.
TOM xXx
P.s If we do this, please don’t bring up words like royalties and copyright… we have a que of lawyers waiting to ass fuck us already. ha x
Hi there punk rockers. Mr Crook here; speechless, spinning plates, but full of summer spirit all the same . . .
A quick note to all of you . . . because these little fuckers take bloody ages to put together, and I have responsibilities of song, psychosis, finishing the new album, the book, and probably some other things that I can’t remember, only 120 of these are available in the ‘pretty canvas sleeves’. 20 are going to be on sale in the Rough Trade shops, and the rest will be available from us at the 3 gigs in July. Otherwise, if anyone lives a million miles away, you can pre-order your copy by going to our shop / releases section on this website, and we will send it out to you. I hope that’s Ok.
Below is the sleeve that has been nicely held together by a punk rock pin and puzzle piece attachment.
Here’s what happens when you take apart the sleeve . . .
And here’s another pretty picture of what it looks like when you open it up . . .
If anyone wants to use the canvas sleeve, the idea is that you can pin it, stick it, frame it, or throw it:
‘Just so you know, ‘The Lost Belongings’ is a 5 track EP. It will give you a taste of what we have been doing and hopefully excite you enough to keep in contact with us, as we make the finishing touches to our New Album which is due out in September.
Please understand, that we are presenting you with a gift. This is something that you can hold in your hands, touch with the ends of your fingers, and if you enjoy the way paint, piss, and blood, feels on your tongue, even taste. Let’s face it, we have all been forced to accept the uncomfortable, though very convenient way, in which downloads, emails, mp3s, myspace, blah blah blah, fucking blah, has changed the way music is distributed. Nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, this does not mean music must appear as an impersonal transference of binary bollocks. After all, we are human beings, and we enjoy touching, we crave skin to skin, and we like to hold, to have, and to remember. The Crooked Family do anyway, so please enjoy.
Your SINcerely, Lupen Crook
PS – At risk at sounding like a fucking corporate(?)cuntpany(?), I will say this quickly and only once, so read it as if I have . . . EVERY SLEEVE IS DIFFERENT, because each one has been hand painted, so do not piss and moan if they look different from the photo. Anyway, I am sure you could have worked that out for yourself.
Once again, peace, punk, and poeTRY, I hope to be hearing from you soon.
“… a rich tapestry featuring a myriad of elements that tell of dark tales wrapped with music hall reverie, sepia set skiffle shanties and a kick backing swoon of tail feather teasing smoked and shuffling skeletal rockabilly.”
LOSINGTODAY.COM‘s detailed, song-by-song review of The Lost Belongings EP is so packed with evocative imagery that it almost makes my eyes bleed red tears of joy. It’s a fine description of what to expect. Read the full review here.
a few quick images on behalf of the extremely talented animator emma fitzgerald, taken from a new video for the song ‘How To Murder Birds’ off the forthcoming album. enjoy! x
Update: Emma has provided a bit of background to this project on her own blog here.
Though one can never be sure when they remain in the shadow of something’s presence, I feel, over the last 48 hours we have made another step in the right direction. As we await the return of our good brother Craig, who is due to arrive in Britain next week, Bob, Tom, the Mrs and myself have been willing prisoners inside The Unawarehouse. Our intention was clear from the outset – make a video that is suitable for ‘public consumption’ (our first attempt was something of an drunken experiment).
Over the last few months we have been approached by a handful of reputable ‘production companies’ who have shown an interest in the making of such a video. However, like the record companies, the potential managements, pluggers and booking agents, we have simply overwhelmed them, perhaps seeming skittish, irrational and untamed, and so quickly and quietly each one has retreated to the safety of their previous sitting position. It has seemed more and more probable that we are going to have to bring our beastly reality to the world; to you, and to them, without any support, except the support we give each other. It baffles me quite honestly, and in the past has caused a shower of depression to reign over me, for why should a reputation for being ‘uncompromising’ and ‘eccentric’ ever be detrimental to an artists success. Well, apparently this is true of our present, past and probable future. However, we are no longer suffering by their decisions and dismissals, because in fact, it has bound us together more tightly than any tour, any instance before, and so you will see, the beginnings of our Crooked Family has been born from their unwillingness to take a chance on us.
I borrowed the best camcorder I could get my hands on, seven mega pixels, hardly blue ray, but still, the best we could get, and set about making a video for ‘Lest We Connect’. Tom had the initial idea, and I immediately saw its potential, we all did. We needed something simple, straightforward, but also striking, and obviously representative of us as a band, as individuals, that would accompany the song, rather than distract. Thursday night we filmed the whole thing on Toms mobile phone, story-boarding it, making sure it actually was going to work, because often the ‘verbal’ doesn’t transcend to the ‘actual’ as well as one might initially expect. At around 4am we were satisfied, and thoroughly spent. We slept in late and rose around midday. Clearing the room, we made the final preparations. Two 300 watt light bulbs from Rochester Cameras, a USB cable from Maplins, and a few 13 watt fuses (I still have no idea what these were used for). I painted up the drumhead, and whilst Mrs and Bob watered themselves at the Brittannia, Tom and I finalised the positioning of both lights and our equipment. Mrs’s latest composition, the stark and stirring ‘Waiting For The Post Man’ proved the perfect backdrop. When Bob and Mrs returned, we boarded up the windows and doors with everything we had to hand, until no shred of natural light dared enter the room. Before the final seal was taped over, we all spent a moment by the river, throwing rusty nails at a rusty pole poking out from the silt mud-flaps of the river Medway, enjoying the last of the days light, because our foreseeable future was to be spent locked away in the coffin-like camp that was The Unawarehouse.
The saying ‘its all in the preparation’ is one I will definitely adhere to in the future, because the footage was complete, albeit a few minor hiccups, in just under two hours. We edited until around 1am, and with each of our concentrations exhausted we then bedded down in our bags. The next morning we finished up the last few frames, tore down the set and tasted daylight. Personally I think we have done the song justice, and ourselves too, even though our approach has been typically skittish and irrational.
Lo-fi and scrappy, but more concentrated and thoughtful than the previous videos posted up so far, it should be with you in week or two, and then you can make your own judgment. If the ‘powers that be’ give the green light, apparently it may even be featured on NME TV, though I won’t hold my breath, and nor should you.
With love, Lupen Crook / The Crooked Family
Here’s a bit of footage from around this time last year of a solo performance of Little Treasure at the Command House in Chatham. The full band version of this song appears on the forthcoming Lost Belongings EP.
it seems the best way to gather a decent list of £5 guests for this gig is for everyone to post their names as a comment on this post. (in case you havent heard there will be appx 100 ltd edition handpainted EP’s on sale exclusively at this gig featuring 4 brand new songs.)
advance tickets are £6 + booking fee, and we reckon on the door will be around £8, so if you wanna save a penny or two stick your name and any others below and i shall endevour to check up till the morning of the gig.
if you are a first timer to this site and have followed a link from elsewhere take a minute to check out new songs, artwork and other little treasures,
enjoy!
Free MP3 download: Kick Up The Leaves
(Right-click in Windows or ctrl-click on a Mac, then choose the save or download option depending on which browser you use… Leave us a comment if you get stuck and we’ll get you sorted out.)
Driven by such haste and random mania, because she was ill, too ill to spend the day with Wendy it seemed. So, she came to ‘work’ with ‘Daddy’, and, using an old digital camera, this is what we made. The camera records sixty-second at a time, which is just about her attention span. The song, if I remember rightly, was written during the winter months at her mother’s house. It was recorded days later, quite painlessly, thoughtlessly and I’ve never played it since. The overdubs were added immediately afterward, and will likely never be reconsidered. At the time, I had been suffering a bout of insomnia. Nothing serious, nothing harmful, just the golden light of Old Roads street lamps casting stark light across her mother’s bedroom and all that slept within it, all but me. Between midnight and 3am, every night, I would hear her footsteps from down the hall, padding hurriedly toward her mothers bed, and I would watch her creepy crawl under the covers, wrapping it around until there was no room left for me, which was fine, because it meant I didn’t have to persecute myself with notions of sleep anymore. When the day arrived I would try, at times, to discipline her, by teaching her right from wrong, but all the while fearful that she if learnt too much, the very spirit that drives her tantrums, her certain madness, her most precious part, might calm and cool off. Between the both of us there are mixed messages always. As my eyes glare over and voice draws in, deep and directed with precision, my lips twitch because a great big smile sits beneath the scornful expression painted over my face. I have always known she can see this, so, the elephant mask has come in handy. The mask itself was acquired from Wendy’s House and I am grateful to her that I was not prosecuted, or even asked to return my latest disguise. As for the title of this song, it is a phrase I had never come across before, until one night whilst I wandered her mother’s apartment like a ghost, an article from a magazine recently torn out and stuck to the wall in the kitchen caught my attention. It offered some advice – 20 ways to keep healthy and happy during the winter. ‘Kick Up The Leaves’ was the 13th piece of advice – it encouraged me to go outside, walk, get some fresh air. Eventually I took that advice (Scare Crows), but for now, as we get set for the release of the new EP, you can have this little treasure on me.
I designed this poster for the EP launch. A few people have been asking how to get one, so I’m gonna see how much it will cost to get a bunch made up.
If you would like this poster of Lupen and his paint fetish tacked to your wall then please leave a comment and i’ll get back to you soon. Tom x x x
