Better than gorilla gigging.  Devil’s Son @ Lock 17 bar Camden on Monday night . . .  voice, guitar & cajon.  Five songs then the last train home.  ROCK like a boulder.

x Bob

Crooked songs will never run straight, but some are more wayward than others.  Early renditions of Beauties & Beasts contained sections that don’t feature on the version eventually released on the Great Fears & Curious Predictions EP.

Crook struggled with a dilemma.  “Are my songs becoming a bit wet?” he mused one June evening last year, as his taxi sped through Chatham.  Next time the song was played, there was something different about it.  Stuff was missing.

However, a magpie mind won’t let go of its treasure so easily.  With environmentally-aware economy, the discarded parts of the lyric and melody ended up being recycled in a darker song that was played a few times at solo gigs last summer.

It soon became clear that this sister song was a sickly Siamese beast, separated to save its healthier sibling.  After a period of intensive care, its life-support system was turned off and nature allowed to run its inevitable course.

Coming across it again over a year later, I’m struck by its exuberant melody and the defiance with which it struggled with its dying breaths.  Here it is, in all its flawed glory, presented with Mr Crook’s blessing.  Nameless twin, RIP.

A few words on merchandise and filthy lucre.  A couple of people asked us if there was a way to donate to the band to show their appreciation for the recent free EP.  We’ve added a “tip jar” button in the sidebar on the right (and also on the Shop page).

The EP is free and that’s that.  The only strings attached are to the guitars.  However, to continue the theme, the band runs on a shoestring.  Merchandise profits are modest and any money gets reinvested into creative projects and practical necessities.

The next most pressing task is to rescue Hicks, the band’s van, currently parked in a perilous location and in daily danger of being towed away and crushed.  Though the immediate plans to tour have unfortunately changed, we need to think to the future.

So, any donations are gratefully received.  We reckon it’ll cost about sixty quid to get Hicks to a place of safety.  Not to sound like a fucking supermarket advert, but every little helps.  Alternatively, you might like to buy some of the band’s fine merchandise.

Stocks of the limited edition Lost Belongings EP with the canvas sleeves are running very low. At the time of writing there are seven left and when they’re gone, they’re gone.  There are plenty of standard edition copies left (paper sleeve only) if you miss out.

The hand-made t-shirts are sold out.  There are some old-style Kill Cats ones left. They’re a little grubby, but it’s genuine Unawarehouse filth and thus part of the band’s heritage.  We thought about washing & ironing them, but that’s not very rock ‘n’ roll.

We still have a few Lost Belongings “paint fetish” posters and some silver puzzle piece charms.  Plenty of copies of the Old Books compilation.  We have plans for new merchandise to be available soon… we’ll let you know the moment there’s any news.

If you would like to find out more about terrorist activites in and around The Medway Towns please look to the right side bar of this website where you will find links to our f(r)iends Medway Eyes and Monaxle. For your own safety Lupen Crook advises all budding photographers to snap happy only in the comfort of their home, away from natural light, and to avoid children and any household items that may contain logos, slogans, and corporate identities that are not solely owned by the photographer.

The Dysunited Kingdom remains the band’s heARTland, but it’s great to see the attention that the Great Fears & Curious Predictions EP is attracting from elsewhere.  The above list of countries shows where the EP’s mini-site visitors have come from so far.  Here are some review highlights that we’ve spotted…

DrunkenWerewolf:

“In its entirety Great Fears and Curious Predictions is everything I could have prayed for and more… the penmanship is flawless and fan or foe would be hard pushed to adequately criticise any aspect of the EP. It’s not often that a 5-track secures the position of release of the year, but I have a feeling Crook may have broken normal conventions.”

Zoom In:

“Lupen’s songs have always been malleable, a characteristic allowing them to be performed by Mr. Crook on his own, as well as by the various Murderbirds incarnations. As this EP clearly shows, the tunes hold up to such experimentation because they’re so strong to begin with.”

WhiteTapes (rough translation from German):

“That we need to reintroduce Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds to you when they’ve already put out two albums shows that something is clearly not right in the music business, because this great release from singer-songwriter Lupen Crook deserves much more attention.”

ByteFM (rough translation from German):

“Wonderful music for a lonely Saturday evening, or alternatively an active Sunday morning.”

2 гамбургера и 2 коки (very rough translation from Russian - can anyone help?):

“British musicians are incredibly generous; this time it is Lupen Crook And The Murderbirds.  Lupen Crook himself is an acoustic singer with a painful voice. As a part of The Murderbirds, he’s a melodramatic and devilish writer who mixes freak folk and rock.”

Also thanks to Jécoutedelamusiquedemerde and NO-NAME for their mentions and particularly to NME for the news story.  Everyone’s support is really appreciated.

If you’ve got it then I’ve got and so has she. No morals here. No sense either. We trade a strange form of favour in Medway. We place blame where it most easily falls. That’s just the way; friends that know that others don’t, because some lovers will whereas others won’t.  And so the Medway Sex Trade Demo(n)graphic is now in session . . .

Here’s a little piece of history for you.  Nearly eighteen months ago, just prior to the band’s trip to New York and the subsequent acoustic recording session that became the Great Fears & Curious Predictions EP, Lupen Crook performed a solo gig at The Slaughtered Lamb in London.

The gig was an opportunity to test out a few new songs.  Amongst these were Beauties & Beasts and Window Pain & Terrible Weather, both now on the new EP.  An evolving version of Beauties & Beasts became a semi-regular feature of both solo and band sets throughout 2008.

However, so far this remains the only time that Mr Crook has performed Window Pain & Terrible Weather live.  He swears that it will never happen again, for reasons undisclosed.  So, enjoy this fleeting glimpse of the tale of the brittle bones, the broken band and the SA-10 sounds.

Word,
I’ve been working on a few alternative EP cover designs for the free download – Great Fears and Curious Predictions.   I annoyed myself by not getting the time to finish off an idea by the release date, so Mr Crook took the reigns and made the design you see today.  We have decided to keep back my first design and explore this idea further for the album.  Above is a drawing I started as a tattoo design, but as always the ship tends to steer itself back to port Murderbird. I think it makes a nice cover to accompany the songs.   I will post other alternatives soon.
I hope you like.
Tom
x

Free MP3 download: Great Fears & Curious Predictions

Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds are pleased to offer their extended Crooked Family of fans a free download-only EP, Great Fears & Curious Predictions, containing five previously unreleased acoustic tracks.

The EP was recorded in mid-2008 and represents the sound of the band during a period of transition.  The music is pared down to its bare essentials and the lyrics are more direct and less cryptic than in previous work.

“I am trying for simplicity,” explained Mr Crook in an interview around the same time.  The results of this recording session were the starting point for the work that commenced on the band’s next album several months later.

Notably different in tone to the newer material released on The Lost Belongings EP in July of this year, they nevertheless offer a further indication of where the band is heading with its next major release.

Great Fears & Curious Predictions takes its place in the formal canon of the band’s discography.  It’s download-only because it’s free, but artwork is included to allow fans to make their own CD copies if required.

The EP has its own mini-site, to distinguish it from the individual MP3 downloads that have appeared here in the past (and will continue to appear in future).  Please pass on the link to your friends, spread the word.  Enjoy.

- Hg, 09/09/09 at 09:09

Sitting here with two devil heads in old man hands. Dreams of autumn leaves like confetti. Ha ha cries the curse. Oh well I reply. So goes this affective disorder. So anyway, yesterday I cleaned myself out and passed precious paper to the man they call Jim Riley. Album is now finished. I like it a lot. I’d also like to cut a cross into my forehead, but thats a different matter. Probably why I spent last night wandering the streets like a lost dog, dreaming of wide open spaces, sand and rock, animals, not humans. Get over it. How. Well, make a front cover for your EP. I might use Lego. I might not. Whilst I decide, here is another gloriously flawed achievement – live from the front room.