We have video footage from our trip to Latitude that will one day be edited and will see the light of day. At the moment, it’s all hands on deck to get the album out.
Yes, at last the album has an almost-finalised release date of 4th October. We have until the end of the next week to turn that into a beastly reality.
In the meantime, here’s some great footage that we spotted on YouTube of Dorothy Deserves at Latitude. Thanks to Nige for shooting and uploading it. x
We set ourselves rather an ambitious target by commencing work on the Devil’s Son video a fortnight before the release date, mainly due to availability of personnel and resources. Having said that, deadlines are always good for sharpening the mind.
The two songs on this double A side single highlight very different aspects of the band’s output. We therefore needed to ensure that this video worked both with and against Dave Wise’s reflective video for World’s End, which went public a few weeks ago.
We adopted an almost entirely opposing approach this time around. Little planning. No storyboard. Inspiration, but no “concept”. Spur-of-the-moment opportunities, stolen with a magpie eye and polished during the final editing phase. Creative chaos.
For the World’s End video we chose a location, made a trip of it and shivered on the shoreline in the watery Spring sunshine. For Devil’s Son we used the band’s rehearsal space in Chatham, sweating in the claustrophobic heat and dim lighting of the venue.
We had a great time. Dave joined us, filming half of the footage as well as lending the benefit of his experience. Everyone contributed ideas and I edited the footage, with Mr Crook providing guidance and feedback during the penultimate session.
Here are the results. To watch in HD, press Play, change the video quality setting from 360p to 720p and then watch full-screen (click the four outward-pointing arrows next to “720p”). If it “stutters”, you might need to drop back to 360p.
Hey punk rockers. The Crooked Family are massively excited to announce that the first Lupen Crook release of the year will be a limited edition double ‘A’ side 7″ single and download comprising World’s End and a re-recorded version of Devil’s Son, available on Monday 12th July.
This single is the first proper taster of the new material from the forthcoming third album, The Pros and Cons of Eating Out, which will be released later in the year and which forms the basis for most of our live sets this summer.
The album was recorded at Ranscombe Studios with Jim Riley and remixed by Howie B. It’s been a long and wonky road but the album is now finished. All your support so far has been massively appreciated. We hope this first offering begins to make it all worth while. Long may it continue.
World’s End and Devils Son is being released by Label Fandango and the 7″ Vinyl comes with a Crooked lyric insert for each track. It’ll be available by mail order from the label and direct from this website. You’ll also be able to buy the tracks via download and purchase the 7″ at gigs after the release date.
I mentioned the trip we all took down to Dungeness to shoot a video for World’s End, which is proudly presented above (also available on YouTube). Dave Wise has done a fantastic job. He’s also put a great pinhole shot of us at the beach on his blog. If you manage to get your hands on the vinyl you’ll also see I’ve bastardised one of Hg’s Dungeness shots for one of the lyric inserts, which all form part of this lovely little offering.
So, with the single set for release, album ready to rock and a healthy string of festival appearances lined up, our Crooked Summer Of Hate is all set to start. It would be wonderful if you can join us!
xxx
Yours SINcerely
Lupen CroOK
PS – in case you haven’t spotted, you can listen to both tracks right now on the player.
Update (9th July): the Devil’s Son video is now available here.
Mr Crook played a couple of solo sets at Rochester’s Sweeps Festival on Friday and Saturday night. Here are two songs that you’re going to hear more of over the next few months.
World’s End:
Devil’s Son:
Various photographers were in attendance. This is what’s been posted to Flickr so far (will automatically update with anything new):
(You can view the full-screen version of the slideshow here.)
New video from our homegrown creative and film maker Dave Wise – in my opinion his most potent piece of work to date – Great soundtrack, shocking content. Well worth a moment of your time and precious attention.
This is what the black treacle was for… a photo shoot based on the concept of tarring and feathering, punishment by humiliation. As you can see in the video, much pissing and moaning ensued, so the humiliation went well. However, the end justified the means, as the very rough preview shots that we saw later in the day were amazing. Jenny’s now scrubbing them up and working her magic on them, so hopefully you’ll get to see them soon.
(Facebookers, you’ll need to hop over to the blog to see this video, plus any other YouTube stuff that we post on the website.)
Last year we used the phrase “growing pains” to describe the difficulties of getting (re-)organised. Skin stretching, bones busting, shooting outwards, haphazard and Alice-like, banging into obstacles, constrained by walls and windows. This Spring has been a more positive phase of growth, as last week’s mini-tour demonstrated.
Four nights in Portsmouth, Brighton, Maidstone and Gillingham, performing a set whose intensity only increased as the week wore on. A mixture of old favourites, songs from the forthcoming album and a couple of brand new numbers (The Counting Song and Big Top Disaster Scenario) receiving their stage debuts.
Here are a few murky videos (Maidstone was LOUD, forgive the odd squelch every now and then)… darkened mementos for everyone who was there and hopefully a good enough second-best for those who couldn’t make it.
Last Thursday evening, various members of The Crooked Family converged on The Hope, near Google Street tube station, to film a video for the re-recorded version of The Pirate’s Wife, which features on the forthcoming album.
After our own DIYvideoefforts last year, it was a pleasure to see the band working with a friendly and clearly competent bunch of professionals, overseen by director (and new manager) Bruce. We’re eagerly awaiting the results.
In the meantime, here’s a little “making of” video to give you a flavour of what happened on the night. Make sure you watch it all the way through… the album has reverted to its original working title, which is revealed at the end.
“Memoriacide, featuring live music from Lupen Crook and Oliver Burgess played at locations in the Medway Estuary, showing Cockham Wood and Darnet Fort, Hoo Ness Island and Darnet Island. Filmed by Dave Wise in September 2009 during a canoe journey we took. The title refers to the killing of history; which is what Medway Council are guilty of by refusing to save the forts and islands from the river, and also what I am doing by showing this film and introducing the locations, which will in time encourage others to go there and no doubt ruin them, as we generally do. A very human failing, this lust for passing on information to please; to get close in some way. As the old traveller writer’s saying goes, we each kill the thing we love.”
