Steel Cranes

Steel Cranes have patience and power and a big, angry sound. Their second album, Tango, finds the guitar and drums duo usually sounding like a quartet, thanks to some well-arranged bass guitar and accent instruments like cello or organ. But Tracy Shapiro and Amanda Schulke leave a lot of open space in their arrangements, which give their heavy music a uniquely airy quality because they aren’t filling every moment with chugging rhythm guitar chords.

“Ebb” kicks off the record in a haze of heavily distorted guitar that fades in and out over Shapiro’s vocals. The hazy guitar continues even when the acoustic guitar is replaced by a simple drumbeat and carefully measured bassline. “Ebb” is a slow, nuanced song that is anchored by Shapiro’s aching vocal performance and that ever-present guitar. The chorus, which is simply Shapiro singing “I have changed / I have changed / I have so little to say”, is striking in its starkness.

Turns out that “Ebb” is par for the course on Tango, which is filled with striking, unhurried songs that display intense emotions. Shapiro gets maximum impact from her distortion pedal, which she repeatedly deploys to unusual effect. At times she shreds like the lead guitarist of a metal band. “Pretty” departs from its quiet verses mid-song for an extended, ripping solo that’s initially backed up by nothing more than drummer Schukle’s cymbal rolls. Eventually the beat and the bass return to provide more traditional support for Shapiro’s solo, but the sparse arrangement sets Steel Cranes apart. “Happy” is one of the few songs that uses the distorted guitar in an overly familiar manner. The verses find a wall of guitar sound reminiscent of ‘90s shoegaze bands (except that there’s just the one guitar; if they’d really wanted the shoegaze wall, they would’ve triple-tracked it) blazing away. But the chorus opts for a martial snare drum beat and harsh organ sound to provide a big contrast to the distorted guitar.

The bluesy “Her” finds Schukle’s simple 6/8 beat and bluesy bass playing giving the band a slightly different sound. Shapiro is still pissed off, singing about a two-timing boyfriend whom she believes wants her but who also refuses to leave his previous woman. There’s a solid rhythm guitar part, too, which really adds to the backwoods blues feel of the song. “Sandglass” is characterized by its quietly arpeggiating guitar, but the use of a cello, mostly lodged firmly in the song’s background, enhances the song’s melancholy tone. The one moment of lightness on Tango comes at the opening of “Take Me Down”, which features a jangly major key guitar riff for 20 seconds, complete with a “Yee-haw!!” Then it instantly shifts into a slow, tom-heavy dirge, complete with an oppressive, swirling distorted guitar riff, creepy bassline, and foreboding cello. This builds into the album’s one full-on heavy metal moment, where Shapiro’s distorted solo is backed by pounding drums and and yes, a rhythm guitar chugging along on chords. And then it returns to the dirge to finish out the song.

Lyrically, Shapiro spends most of Tango lashing out. Sometimes it’s at other people, like the boyfriend in “Her” or the aggressive fantasy of “Happy”. But more often there’s self-flagellation, such as “What Am I Doing Here”, which uses a start-stop musical structure to repeatedly bemoan a bad decision in progress; “What am I doing here? / I should go.”

Steel Cranes’ unusual approach makes their songs particularly striking. It also helps that they don’t quite do the same thing twice at any point here. That means their songs are distinct even in the few cases where they aren’t particularly great. It makes Tango an interesting album to listen to every time and encourages listeners to find new musical details they might have missed the previous time, and that makes it one of the year’s most compelling albums. - PopMatters

The album ‘Tango’ by Steel Cranes has a weirdly unique sound that seems to have genetically bonded Hole with Debbie Harry. Hidden in the music and the lyrics is a beautiful (and yet NOT beautiful) combination of leather and lace (Stevie and Don, eat your hearts out). Hovering between pissed off, haunting, and forgiving, these nine songs would play well as the background music of a fluorescent Cheshire Cat leading us down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Or a black light illuminated, smoke-laced, strobe light-decorated opium den.

It would be wrong to say the music is plodding, but the pace is very deliberate. And whereas it sounds totally all over the place, there is never a step out of march. Even in the seeming lack of control, there is absolute control, an undeniable method to the madness. And though it probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the instrumentals are ingeniously composed and help set the tone of the words to which they are married. Ranging from soft to harsh to almost unforgiving, the mood it creates gives credibility and depth to the lyrics.

And the lyrics! Though maybe a little “blue,” Steel Cranes walks that hazy line between having hope and needing hope. It’s not Dr. Drew singing “Kumbaya” to Oprah, but the lyrics do contain voices of people both desperate to believe (a woman asking a man when he will be leaving his girlfriend) and being filled with belief (as a young woman describes the small gestures on a date). And with this also comes the ever-present tag-along shadow of vulnerability (“You tell me I’m pretty while you rob me blind”). Here is the age-old unbalanced dichotomy between opening oneself to find beauty or pain: wonderful lyrics coupled with supplemental, haunting music. If Disney wanted to make a Gothic “Beauty and the Beast,” these guys could write the soundtrack.

Much like the dance of the same name, ‘Tango’ is a struggle between two forces. In this case, it’s a tug-of-war between the hope brought with happiness and the hope FOR happiness. And it is worth every step. - Innocent Words

In Steel Crane's new song, "Pretty," — the first single to be released from their upcoming sophomore album, Tango — rollicking drums and bass collide with salacious guitar licks to create a moody, grunge-rock tune revolving around the topic of prettiness.

It's almost hard to believe that the song was created by a duo, consisting of Tracy Shapiro (vocals, guitar) and Amanda Schukle (drums, bass, guitar, keys), because there's just so damn much going on in it. Throughout the track, tempos boomerang, transitioning from deep, harmonic chords to explosions of thundering drums and chaotic bass, before easing back down with some titillating high-hats. And, on top of it all, there is Shapiro's languid, raspy voice, reminiscent of an early Courtney Love.
The song itself is both personal and impersonal, says Shapiro. "It's born from a period where I felt surrounded by betrayal in my life and in the lives of people close to me," she says. "I was thinking a lot about the visible and invisible forces constantly at play, informing people's choices and behavior."

Tango, which comes out August 5, is the band's first new album since 2013's Ouroboros. The duo decided to write, record, and produce this album themselves, which not only allowed them more freedom and creative control, but also a whole lot more time to work on it.

"We’d been playing some of these songs live for a while and we heard more in them," says Schukle. "More texture, more nuance, more melody, more guitar tones. Tango has a lot more of a post-punk vibe, definitely some grunge, maybe a little classic rock, and also some generally weird shit that I’m not sure how to describe. But it is also more beautiful.” - SF Weekly

Steel Cranes are from Oakland, Calif., but don't expect the duo to get all Bay Area Lil B on you. Tracy Shapiro and Amanda Schukle's two-woman rock assault has more in common with the Melvins or the Black Keys: the slo-mo heaviness of a 2,000-pound pendulum, as much grit as an abandoned highway, and a fearless sense of rock 'n' roll. On "Boat Song," the duo squishes deep into amplifier sludge, Shapiro stomping her wah-wah pedal to the limit as Schukle keeps the cymbal crashes on lock.

The band calls PJ Harvey an influence, and she's definitely there in Shapiro's vocals. "Everything I do reminds me of you," Shapiro sings to open "Boat Song," oozing over-it disdain instead of sweet, Brannan-filtered nostalgia. "Why can't I let you go?" she wails, repeating the line with increasing frenzy. Though their rap credentials don't make it to this track, the band also names New York hip-hop icons De La Soul as a favorite -- maybe we'll see them repping the Bay and ghost-riding the whip with E-40 yet. The band's debut album, Ouroboros (complete with a Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf Ouroboros wheel), using little red riding hood and the wolf), is due in September. - MTV Buzzworthy

Oakland duo Steel Cranes provides exactly the right kind of heavy, noisy rock for the dying days of summer. They shred, but they're not frantic. Their sound lacks any pretense whatsoever, offering raw, relentless power instead. Of "Boat Song," the first single from the band's forthcoming debut album, drummer Amanda Schukle has this to say: "We recorded it in one take. It's a bit of controlled chaos, like being just on the verge of falling over a cliff, but pulling back at the last minute." My hope for Steel Cranes is that, no matter how famous they're about to be, they don't lose the sense of loud, gritty fun in which their first few singles are drenched. - Bitch Magazine