The Great Crusades
Chicago, Illinois, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1996 | INDIE
Music
Press
"Keep Them Entertained is the rock album of the year. Period. 5 stars. "-- Peter Felkel (Musikexpress, Sept 2007)
- Musikexpress
"Keep Them Entertained is the rock album of the year. Period. 5 stars. "-- Peter Felkel (Musikexpress, Sept 2007)
- Musikexpress
On the Edge by David Fricke
Face down on the bar: THE GREAT CRUSADES look at life through a shot glass lens on "The First Spilled Drink of the Evening" (Mud, CD), mixing anger, muscle and minor-key remorse like a roughneck Tindersticks with the bonus of a singer (guitarist and songwriter Brian Krumm) who's got the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Roses's love child. - David Fricke
On the Edge by David Fricke
Face down on the bar: THE GREAT CRUSADES look at life through a shot glass lens on "The First Spilled Drink of the Evening" (Mud, CD), mixing anger, muscle and minor-key remorse like a roughneck Tindersticks with the bonus of a singer (guitarist and songwriter Brian Krumm) who's got the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Roses's love child. - David Fricke
The Great Crusades, "Never Go Home" (Glitterhouse/Germany)
When this Chicago foursome set off on their third album, with "Hand Grenade Head" and "Out of Our Little Town" ("They don't sell sleeping pills over the counter," Brian Krumm sings, and you know that's as hopeful as the song will get), they carry themselves like Midwestern gangsters: with the determined, bitter nihilism of Tom Hanks in "Road to Perdition," but also the gleeful nihilism of Billy Zane in "This World, Then the Fireworks." But as the road out of town gets longer, you hear a guitar player putting a south-of-the-border melody on "The Wild Bunch," surf combos tuning up in Southern California in 1962, a steel-guitarist clocking in in Nashville, a banjo player picking for himself somewhere in Virginia in the 1920s, and the band never hurries a step.
- Salon.com
The Great Crusades, "Never Go Home" (Glitterhouse/Germany)
When this Chicago foursome set off on their third album, with "Hand Grenade Head" and "Out of Our Little Town" ("They don't sell sleeping pills over the counter," Brian Krumm sings, and you know that's as hopeful as the song will get), they carry themselves like Midwestern gangsters: with the determined, bitter nihilism of Tom Hanks in "Road to Perdition," but also the gleeful nihilism of Billy Zane in "This World, Then the Fireworks." But as the road out of town gets longer, you hear a guitar player putting a south-of-the-border melody on "The Wild Bunch," surf combos tuning up in Southern California in 1962, a steel-guitarist clocking in in Nashville, a banjo player picking for himself somewhere in Virginia in the 1920s, and the band never hurries a step.
- Salon.com
Tinkling ballads, acerbic stompers: Brian Krumm can do nearly everything. This music doesn't wear make-up. It's bone dry, without any vain flourish and has swallowed at least half a bucket of rusty nails. The equipment, so the legend says, had to be borrowed from all around. What happened next was the usual house occupation; tiny studio in the bedroom, musicians in the cellar, women anywhere else. No one complained.
Then Brian Krumm and his colleagues made themselves comfortable, tuned their instruments and started to play. It was worth the effort 'cause this music doesn't suffer. It's true Never Go Home includes the Crusades- typical mixture of melancholic-cynical reflections and a little agitation about thankless conditions, but the four musicians (three of them are called Brian by the way) deal very reluctantly with common tears and fears. They prefer to hate the countryside and watch themselves die in a little town knowing quite well there's no way out. Just listen to "Our Little Town"; "You're amazing in bed, but I am bored out of my head/ With this life we are living in our little town." Sometimes "Cold Weather" is to blame: "She said: And even though I love you so/ I just can't take this cold weather anymore." The lyrics remain unpretentious and teeth-grinding but no need to worry; I'm a loser baby but quite content with it. And this music really moves you because it was mostly recorded on first take and includes 15 absolutely beautiful melodies. Pedal Steel, Piano, crashing guitars and above all Krumm's voice, still sounding deeply dipped in whiskey and snake-blood. The Waits-effect without any bawling.
From tinkling ballads (especially the untitled bonus track) to acerbic stompers, each song is a masterpiece on it's own. That is why we can save ourselves tiresome references (Springsteen, 16 Horsepower and any other band). Except maybe one. "The Return Of Ol' Carlo" reminds us pleasantly of Calexico-like Tex Mex. And desert sand is blowing through the living-room.
4 stars (out of five) - Rolling Stone
Tinkling ballads, acerbic stompers: Brian Krumm can do nearly everything. This music doesn't wear make-up. It's bone dry, without any vain flourish and has swallowed at least half a bucket of rusty nails. The equipment, so the legend says, had to be borrowed from all around. What happened next was the usual house occupation; tiny studio in the bedroom, musicians in the cellar, women anywhere else. No one complained.
Then Brian Krumm and his colleagues made themselves comfortable, tuned their instruments and started to play. It was worth the effort 'cause this music doesn't suffer. It's true Never Go Home includes the Crusades- typical mixture of melancholic-cynical reflections and a little agitation about thankless conditions, but the four musicians (three of them are called Brian by the way) deal very reluctantly with common tears and fears. They prefer to hate the countryside and watch themselves die in a little town knowing quite well there's no way out. Just listen to "Our Little Town"; "You're amazing in bed, but I am bored out of my head/ With this life we are living in our little town." Sometimes "Cold Weather" is to blame: "She said: And even though I love you so/ I just can't take this cold weather anymore." The lyrics remain unpretentious and teeth-grinding but no need to worry; I'm a loser baby but quite content with it. And this music really moves you because it was mostly recorded on first take and includes 15 absolutely beautiful melodies. Pedal Steel, Piano, crashing guitars and above all Krumm's voice, still sounding deeply dipped in whiskey and snake-blood. The Waits-effect without any bawling.
From tinkling ballads (especially the untitled bonus track) to acerbic stompers, each song is a masterpiece on it's own. That is why we can save ourselves tiresome references (Springsteen, 16 Horsepower and any other band). Except maybe one. "The Return Of Ol' Carlo" reminds us pleasantly of Calexico-like Tex Mex. And desert sand is blowing through the living-room.
4 stars (out of five) - Rolling Stone
Discography
The Great Crusades are currently working on their 8th studio album in Chicago with Grammy winners Brian Leach and Blaise Barton. It will be released in 2014. Boxing Clever Records (St. Louis, MO) will release a seven inch featuring the Great Crusades in late 2013. In 2011, Lakeshore Records (Hollywood, CA) released "Who's Afraid of Being Lonely?", which featured "classic" songs from the Great Crusades' back catalog. The Great Crusades released their 7th album on Glitterhouse Records in Europe and Octane Recordings in North America in 2010. Keep Them Entertained (2007) was the band's 6th album since their 1998 inception. Previous releases include: Four Thirty (2006); Welcome to the Hiawatha Inn (2004); Never Go Home (2002); Damaged Goods (2000); and The First Drink Spilled of the Evening (1998). Key to the City (a career retrospective DVD) was released in 2008.
Photos
Bio
In July 2011, Lakeshore Records (Hollywood, CA) released "Who's Afraid of Being Lonely?", which featured "classic" songs from the Great Crusades' back catalog. In October 2011, two of the band's songs appeared in the season 4 finale of the HBO vampire series "True Blood." The band performed in Europe and the U.S. in 2011 and 2012 and also recorded with Chris Estes (Adele, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz) at Chicago Recording Company.
Boxing Clever Records (St. Louis, MO) will release a seven inch featuring the Great Crusades in late 2013. The Great Crusades are currently working on their 8th studio album in Chicago with Grammy winners Brian Leach and Blaise Barton. It will be released in 2014. The band has already confirmed festival appearances in Europe for a Summer 2014 tour. This will be the band's 20th European tour.
Press Release for "Fiction to Shame" (Glitterhouse Records [Europe]/Frank Octane Experiment [North America])
It's not hard to believe that The Great Crusades have been a band for more than 10 years and have seven albums to their name as well as a career retrospective DVD (Key to the City). The band members' friendships lie at the heart of why The Great Crusades is still a viable, prolific band in 2010. On the other hand, some might say the band is still together only because it took this long to make its best album yet, Fiction to Shame.
Regardless, the personal history of the band is at least partly responsible for its longevity. Although The Great Crusades was formed in Champaign, Illinois, by vocalist/guitarist Brian Krumm in 1996, the current lineup of the band has been together since 1998. The band members have also known each other most of their lives at this point.
Krumm, bassist Brian Hunt, and drummer Christian Moder went to grade school and high school (and played in bands together) in the St. Louis suburb of Collinsville, Illinois. Hunt and Krumm met Brian Leach, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist, in 1989 in Champaign. Somehow, all four band members ended up in Chicago in 1998, and they've managed to stay together and make great music together to this day.
The first Great Crusades album, The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, was released by Mud Records in 1997, and its sound and lyrics quickly created a cult following for the band. Rolling Stone's David Fricke wrote, "The Great Crusades look at life through a shot-glass lens . . . mixing anger, muscle, and minor-key remorse like a roughneck Tindersticks with the bonus of a singer (Krumm) who's got the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Rose's love child." The album was reissued in Europe in 1998 by the German indie Trocadero Records, and the first of many European tours followed.
Damaged Goods was released by the venerated German label, Glitterhouse Records, in 2000, and by Checkered Past Records in the U.S. The critical accolades kept coming with praise from European and American press alike. Never Go Home (2002) saw the band reach a higher public profile when a tour of Germany, Austria, and Croatia was presented by Musikexpress magazine. In 2003, the band gained even more exposure as part of their appearance on the celebrated German television program, Rockpalast.
Welcome to the Hiawatha Inn (2004), Four Thirty (2006), and Keep Them Entertained (2007) followed, each featuring a fresh approach to the band's sound. The band continued to expand its fan base and further build its reputation as one of the most engaging, wildest live bands in the business. Along the way, the band shared the stage with a very diverse list of artists, including Gary Moore, Scorpions, 16 Horsepower, Broken Social Scene, Bottle Rockets, Steve Wynn, and Leningrad Cowboys.
Now, with Fiction to Shame, the band is poised to introduce yet another creative direction to its dedicated following. Written and recorded live simultaneously, this album includes some of the band's most unique-sounding yet accessible songs to this point. Most importantly, however, at the heart of the record lies the sound of four great, lifelong friends making music together as they have for more than a decade.
Influences: AC/DC, The Band, Richard Thompson, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Neil Young, Gallon Drunk, The Jayhawks, The Replacements, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Leon Redbone, Webb Wilder, Morphine, The Smiths, Eric Burdon, The Pretenders, 16 Horsepower, Camper Van Beethoven, Thin Lizzy, The Ramones, Wall of Voodoo/Stan Ridgway, Uncle Tupelo, Nick Drake, R.E.M., The Pogues, Stray Cats/Brian Setzer, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, PJ Harvey, Dwight Yoakam, Echo and the Bunnymen
Band Members
Links
